February 11, 2015

Special Issue of Finest Hour Will Record Ceremonies
Commemorating Churchill’s Death and Funeral

Across Britain and North America ceremonies took place during the last week of January to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the passing of Sir Winston Churchill. The Churchill Centre will be producing a special issue of its journal Finest Hour to share the details and images of these events with its membership. Formal ceremonies took place at the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Tower of London while many people made the pilgrimage to Bladon to lay flowers at Churchill’s final resting place.

On 24 January, the fiftieth anniversary of Churchill’s death, a ceremony was held in Fulton, Missouri at the National Churchill Museum of the United States. The Hon. Edwina Sandys, a granddaughter of Sir Winston, spoke to those in attendance including Sir Peter Westmacott, the British ambassador. In Toronto on the same day The Churchill Society for the Advancement of Parliamentary Democracy hosted a ceremony at Trinity College that reenacted the original Order of Service for Sir Winston’s funeral at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Speaking in the lobby of the House of Commons on 30 January, the anniversary of the State Funeral, Prime Minister David Cameron said of Churchill, “He left Britain more free, more secure, more brave and more proud—for that we will always be grateful to him.”

This will be only the second special issue of Finest Hour produced by The Churchill Centre during its forty-seven year history. The first was produced just last year to celebrate the life of our late Patron, Mary Soames, the last surviving child of Winston and Clementine Churchill.