January 1, 1970

His body lay in state in Westminster Hall where 300,000 mourners filed past his coffin.

You can see the Union Jack flag that draped Churchill’s coffin for the laying-in-state in the Churchill Museum at the Churchill War Rooms.

On 30 January 1965, Big Ben, the famous bell in Parliament Square, was silent for the day, from the time the funeral procession left Westminster Hall, at 9.45 am, until midnight.

Crowds estimated at over a million lined the streets from Westminster to St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London. As the cortege passed St James’s Park, a ninety gun salute rang out, one for each year of Churchill’s life.

2024 International Churchill Conference

Join us for the 41st International Churchill Conference. London | October 2024

More

The funeral took place in St Paul’s Cathedral, attended by six sovereigns, fifteen heads of state and representatives from 112 nations. The congregation sang his favourite hymns, one of which was ‘Fight the Good Fight’.

A special issue of the BBC’s ‘Radio Times’ was devoted to the broadcasting of the State Funeral and included information on the route of the funeral procession and the order of service so people at home could join in with the hymns. See this here.

And here’s the press release by the BBC for the broadcasting of the funeral.

Tributes paid to Churchill by members of the House of Commons can be found in Hansard, the Official Report of the proceedings in the House.

A barge, the Havengore, then carried his coffin up the River Thames to Waterloo station, as the Royal Air Force flew overhead and quayside cranes dipped in salute.