Tribute to Winston Churchill from the nation he saved
LONDON — Fifty years ago Friday, vast crowds lined the banks of the Thames to watch in silence and awe the passing of Britain’s greatest wartime leader. In a scene seared in the memory of so many, even the huge cranes that lined the banks of the river dipped in salute as Sir Winston Churchill’s lead coffin was carried upstream on board the Havengore.
Aside from the multitudes on the streets of London for the state funeral that day, this last voyage was televised across the world to 350 million viewers.
Friday, under similarly broody skies and a bitter wind, the Havengore set sail once more with members of the Churchill family on board. This time, the crowds were numbered in thousands, yet it did not diminish the solemnity of the anniversary.
On the quayside, The Royal Hospital School Band played Rule Britannia. On board, the passengers were accompanied by the Queen’s Watermen, splendid in their ceremonial tunics, flashing scarlet against the murky water.
Among those watching from the embankment was Gordon Roy, a 69-year-old Royal Navy veteran who was on duty that day in 1965.
“I had been injured in an accident on the submarines,” he recalls, “and was still recovering in hospital. But they decided they needed some more bodies so they told me to get my best uniform and come down to stand on duty.”
He took his place near St. Paul’s Cathedral, immaculate in his uniform of silk lanyard, white garters and belt.
“I will remember it forever,” he said. “It was the look on people’s faces — everybody was just spellbound.”
Ivor Edwards, a 71-year-old former corporal in the Royal Signals, was another veteran present Friday and happy to share his memories.
“In 1965 I was in Cyprus with the UN peacekeeping force,” he said. “I never got the chance to come then. We couldn’t even watch it on TV. That’s why I’m here today.”
He was one of many in the crowd to speak warmly of the former prime minister. “Churchill was the right man for the right time,” he said.
The voyage was just one event among several on this day of commemoration, which had begun with a service in the Houses of Parliament and concluded in the evening at Westminster Abbey.
British Prime Minister David Cameron was one of the first to lay a wreath at the feet of Churchill’s statue in the Members’ Lobby, paying tribute to a “great leader and a great Briton.”
The archway where the statue stands was rebuilt out of shattered stone on Churchill’s command after its destruction during the Blitz. Cameron urged Britons to continue to draw on such “courage and resolve” to battle the affronts to freedom we face today.
He spoke in the shadow of the hulking bronze monument: Churchill, hands on his hips, the scowling leader still inspiring the nation he saved.