55 years ago Today, on the 30th January 1965, was the funeral of Sir Winston churchill - to that point the largest state funeral in the World had seen.

Winston Churchill's funeral was on a scale befitting his place in history as the Prime Minister who guided Britain to victory during World War II.

As mentioned here on Today in English Hiistory, he died on January 24, 1965, having lived to the age of 90.

The government had been planning extensively for his funeral in the years before his death, and it had to be revised several times as Churchill kept living, leading Lord Mountbatten to remark that "the pallbearers kept dying and Churchill kept living."

It became the largest state funeral in history.

Representatives from over 120 countries attended the ceremony in London, including Queen Elizabeth II, for whom Churchill was reportedly her favorite prime minister. The funeral itself was watched by 350 million people on television.


Sir Winston Churchill RIP