Nov. 30, 1963 - Britons paid homage to Sir Winston Churchill today on his 89th birthday. Sir Winston stood at the window of his London home in Hyde Park Gate for the benefit of admirers and photographers. For about two minutes, as Lady Churchill held the curtains aside, he smiled and waved in acknowledgement of the crowd’s greetings. Throughout the day, gifts and messages of tribute and congratulations poured in from all over the world. Sir Winston thanked the public for their good wishes today in the following statement: “I am most grateful for all the kind messages I have received on my 89th birthday. The good wishes of so many have given me happiness, and I ask you all to accept my warm thanks.” A birthday cake from Floris Ltd., a Soho company, was delivered during the morning. The theme of the decoration was Sir Winston’s honorary U.S. citizenship, expressed by a bridge in icing spanning the Atlantic. A plaque bore these words: “Never in the fields of human endeavor has so much been owed by all mankind to one man.” This was a variation on Sir Winston’s famous tribute to the “few” of the Royal Air Force who won the decisive Battle of Britain in World War II. The original quotation was as follows: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
