Winston Churchill Dies

Setting the scene

By the early 1960s Winston Churchill, ninety years old, had suffered strokes and rarely appeared in public, though he remained a member of Parliament. Britain planned a state funeral years in advance, code-named Operation Hope Not.

What happened

Churchill died at his London home on January 24, 1965, nine days after a major stroke. Queen Elizabeth II granted him the first state funeral for a commoner in the twentieth century, with representatives from 112 nations attending St. Paul's Cathedral on January 30.

Why it still matters

More than 350 million people watched on television as a crane lowered his coffin onto a barge on the Thames, and a locomotive named Winston Churchill bore his body to burial beside his parents at Bladon. Memorable detail: dockers along the river lowered cranes in salute as the funeral train passed, an unscripted gesture that became one of the day's most famous images.

Background

Queen Elizabeth attended the elaborate ceremony.