'We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. He said: 'I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat." Winston Churchill's rousing speeches inspired a nation and played a key role in maintaining Britain's morale during the dark early days of the Second World War The blow came less than two weeks after Britons cheered and partied in the streets on VE Day – when the Allies accepted Germany's unconditional surrender.īecause of the way he had served as PM throughout the fight against the Nazis and had made historic speeches which lifted Britons' spirits, Churchill was a revered figure. He was an MP from 1900-1964 and represented five constituencies mostly for the Conservative Party apart from 1904 to 1924 when he was a member of the Liberal Party.Ĭhurchill was forced to call a general election after Labour opted to pull out of the War Cabinet on May 21, 1945. Other newly colourised images show processions of the state funeral.Ĭhurchill was also a soldier educated at Sandhurst, a Boer war hero and the winner of Nobel prizes for writing and history. It was initiated after Churchill's stroke in 1953 while in his second term as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Planning for the funeral, known as Operation Hope Not, began 12 years before Churchill's death. The official funeral lasted for four days. His was the first state funeral for a non-royal family member since Lord Carson in 1935, and as of 2021 it remains the most recent state funeral in the United Kingdom. One image shows mourning crowds gathered at Hyde Park Gate on the morning of Churchill's death on January 24, 1965.Īnother image shows Sir Winston Churchill's coffin and gun carriage pulled by a brigade of Guards, on his funeral held on January 30, 1965. He died after suffering a stroke on January 24, 1965, aged 90, and his official funeral was held on January 30. Sir Winston Churchill was the country's Prime Minister during World War II from 1940-1945 and then again from 1951-1955. Invoking the spirit of the Atlantic Charter he called for a strengthening of Anglo-American ties and for the United Nations to become a peace-promoting world organization that would succeed where its predecessor the League of Nations had failed.Newly colourised images released for the 57th anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill's death show the nation in mourning during the four-day funeral. The former Prime Minister, with President Truman at his side, articulated the threat that the Soviet Union and communism posed to peace and stability in the post-war world. Then, on March 5, 1946, at Westminster College in Fulton, Churchill’s famous words “From Stettin in the Baltic, to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent,” ushered in the Cold War and framed the geo-political landscape for the next 50 years. Kennan, sent the famous “Long Telegram” warning of the Soviet Union’s perpetual hostility towards the West. On February 22, the American Ambassador to Moscow, George F. On February 9, Premier Joseph Stalin gave a speech in which he declared that war between the East and West was inevitable. In the wake of the Allied victory, the Soviet Union had begun shaping Eastern Europe in their image, bringing the governments of many nations into line with Moscow. Image courtesy of America’s National Churchill Museum.Ĭhurchill, who had won the war in Europe, only to lose in the British general election in July 1945, eagerly accepted the invitation to appear on the same platform with the President of the United States.Ĭhurchill knew that while the world looked forward to putting the horrors of war behind, events at the beginning of 1946 portended an even darker future ahead. Winston Churchill stands with US President Harry S Truman at Westminster College where Churchill gave his now famous speech.
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