At eight o'clock on Sunday, 24 January, 1965 death came to the century's greatest figure, Winston Churchill, His death occurred seventy years to the day of his father, Lord Randolf Churchill's death. Big Ben tolled the quarter hour and then was silenced for the day.

Preparations for his state funeral - code-named Hope Not - had been in progress for some time. Churchill chose to be buried not in Westminster Abbey or St. Paul's Cathedral , but in Bladon churchyard, where his parents and his brother Jack were buried.

WHEN COMES SUCH ANOTHER

Winston's Statue in Westminster Square photo by G.Wilson

Winston Churchill and Lloyd George Flank the Entrance to House of Commons in Westminster

Two days later, Churchill's coffin, draped with the Union Jack, was taken from his last home at Hyde Park Gate to Westminster Hall to lie in state where 321,000 people passed by the catafalque to pay him tribute. It was the first time since Gladstone in 1898, that any non-royal person had been so honoured. Gladstone's state funeral was preceded by that of the Duke of Wellington's in 1852. Churchill's funeral, like that of Wellington's but not Gladstone's, was in St. Paul's Cathedral, not Westminster Abbey.

The Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, had arranged, as a parliamentary tribute to their old colleague, that in place of the soldiers mounting guard around the coffin, the three party leaders - the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the leader of the Liberal Party and the Speaker of the House of Commons - would mount guard for a short period at the corners of the catafalque.

Lying In State In Westminster Hall

On Saturday, 30 January 1965, Churchill was accorded a state funeral. To the beat of muffled drums, the drama began. A mile-long procession moved through the streets of London, watched by a nation in mourning. The coffin with the insignia of the Garter resting on a black pillow was borne on a gun carriage guided by the Royal Navy Gun Crew

Casket Carried Into St. Paul's Cathedral

Churchill's coffin rested in the transept of St.Paul's, where three thousand mourners including kings, queens and prime ministers, participated in the Anglican burial service. Those in attendance included the small figure of Paul Reynaud, Prime Minister of France in the dark days of May, 1940, when he and Churchill met frequently as they tried vainly to come up with some way of convincing Hitler to talk rather than take what he wanted by force, and save the world from another blood-letting like that which had occurred only 21 years before.

Paul Reynaud, 118th Prime Minister of France

Service Inside St. Paul's Cathedral

Service In St. Paul's Cathedral

At the conclusion of the simple ceremony, trumpeters high up in the Whispering Gallery, sounded the Last Post and Reveille. The coffin was carried from the Cathedral by grey-coated Grenadier Guards.

Casket Carried From St. Paul's Cathedral

Royal Watchers

Paying humble homage to Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth broke an ancient royal precedent by attending the funeral of a commoner - her greatest subject.

Coffin On Gun Carriage

The coffin was taken to Tower Pier where it was placed aboard the Havengore which sailed upstream to the stirring strains of Rule Britannia, and a nineteen gun salvo, whose booms were re-echoed by sixteen Lightning jet fighters roaring overhead. At Waterloo station, the coffin was loaded onto a train drawn by Winston Churchill, a Battle of Britain locomotive, to Long Handborough, the station nearest the churchyard at Bladon.

Coffin Aboard Havengore Being Taken from Tower Pier to Waterloo Station

Bladon Church photo by W. Wilson

After a brief private service, Churchill was buried next to his father, his mother and his brother Jack, within site of his own birthplace at Blenheim Palace some 90 years before.

Winston's Body Lowered Into The Grave

Floral Tributes

Winston & Clementine's Tombstone photo by G. Wilson

Winston's Parents' Tombstones photo by G. Wilson

Tombstone of Winston's Brother, John Strange Churchill photo by G. Wilson

A Peerless Person About to Enter Parliament photo by B. Wilson

Winston S. Churchill photo by by G. Wilson

IN WAR: RESOLUTION
IN DEFEAT: DEFIANCE
IN VICTORY: MAGNANIMITY
IN PEACE: GOODWILL