Half a century on, a second farewell to the greatest Briton: Barge that carried wartime icon's body to state funeral 50 years ago sails the Thames once more
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Back in 1965, it was the cranes – bowing in that famous tableau of mechanical mourning – which ‘undid’ members of the Churchill family. Yesterday it was the crowds on the bridges.
Exactly 50 years to the very moment when Sir Winston Churchill was carried from his state funeral to his final resting place, many of the same mourners were making the same journey on the same boat, the Havengore.
Many thousands of ordinary people had turned out to pay their respects, too, as the 84ft former Port of London Authority launch made its way to Westminster carrying a wreath surmounted with the great man’s trademark – a huge ‘V’ for victory.
The passage of half a century has not dimmed his appeal to 21st century Britain. Standing on the deck of the Havengore, Randolph Churchill, 50, admitted that he had tears in his eyes.
‘My goodness – look at that,’ gasped the former Navy officer, a great-grandson born just two days before Sir Winston’s death.
We were approaching London Bridge to find its entire span crammed with onlookers standing patiently in a perishing breeze. On either side, whole office blocks seemed to have come to a standstill as faces pressed against tinted windows.
On the balcony of a glass-fronted building next to Glaziers Hall, workers were waving posters of Sir Winston.
‘It was such a strange day back then and, in some ways, a bit of a blur,’ said Churchill’s granddaughter Celia Sandys. ‘It’s so moving to be here and get a fresh sense of it all over again. I just can’t get over these crowds.’
Yesterday’s voyage was the highlight of several events, including an evening service at Westminster Abbey. It started with a short service inside Parliament.
Britain does not, as a rule, commemorate commemorations. The fact that the three main party leaders and the Speaker had all turned out to honour this one was not just illustrative of Churchill’s immense stature but of the impact his farewell had on Britain and the world in January 1965.
After laying a wreath beneath Churchill’s statue, David Cameron spoke of playing a vinyl record of Churchill’s speeches as a boy and of his lifelong admiration for ‘Churchill the orator’. He voiced his admiration for the many facets of the man, right down to ‘Churchill the bon vivant’, with his fondness for champagne and ‘taking his Cabinet out for lunch at the Savoy Grill’, adding: ‘Sadly for my Cabinet, that is not quite the current regime.’