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Britain Bids Farewell to Churchill

Jan. 30, 1965 - With all the magnificent pomp and pageantry that this historic nation could muster, Britain today bade farewell to Sir Winston Churchill — the commoner son who saved her from Nazi Germany.

Then she surrendered the old warrior-statesman to his family and to the quiet English countryside he loved as a boy.

Representatives of 112 nations joined in the state funeral at St. Paul’s Cathedral — two queens, including his own Queen Elizabeth, four kings, five presidents, seven princes, and a grand duke among them.

And the ordinary people he spurred to such heights of defiance in World War II turned out more than a million strong — the greatest crowd that ever gathered for him — to mourn Sir Winston as his body was drawn through the streets of London.

Many remembered another day in London — Oct. 8, 1940 — when in the House of Commons, Churchill had charged his country to fight:
“Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey; hardship our garment; constancy and valor our only shield. We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be inflexible.”

And Churchill had gone on to lead his country from its darkest, most dangerous days to victory.

Now, Churchill’s countrymen watched in silence and tears while his coffin, draped with the Union Jack and topped by the symbols of his cherished Order of the Garter — the highest ranking British order of knighthood — made its sad journey 2½ miles from Westminster Hall. The body of the 90-year-old warrior-statesman had lain there for three days, during which 321,360 persons passed the bier.

Big Ben, the giant four-faced clock whose thunderous boom provided a fitting accompaniment for Sir Winston’s wartime speeches, lost its voice today in tribute to the statesman.

The bells of the clock atop the Parliament buildings paid their respects in silence for more than 14 hours after the funeral.

The clock, 105 years old and still shining regally from its 316-foot tower, was as much a symbol of British defiance during World War II as was Churchill himself.



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© 2024 by Joe Rubenstein

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