Friday, January 30, 2015

Churchill's Funeral Remembered

The 50th anniversary of Churchill's funeral was commemorated today with a repeat flotilla on the Thames.

It was led by the boat that carried his coffin back in 1965, the Havengore, followed by representatives of the RNLI, the PLA (founded by the man himself), the river police, the fire boat and this dinky little launch from Trinity House:
But we mustn't forget that there was more to Sir Winston Churchill than his greatest years from 1940 - 1945. There are skeletons in his closet, including allegations of racism and the disastrous campaign of the Dardanelles. His name gets overused, all to often to justify dark actions, aggressions and even war crimes.

But today Tower Bridge lifted, the guns on HMS Belfast were fired (bit of an underwhelming bang to be honest) and bagpipers battled against the noise of the helicopters:
On this cold January day London paused to remember what Britain went through in those long war years and the man that led the fight.

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5 comments:

  1. George A6:48 pm

    You might find the last several posts on the blogspot "hear the boat sing" interesting:

    http://feedly.com/i/subscription/feed/http://heartheboatsing.com/feed/

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  2. Baydog6:50 pm

    As only Great Britain can do...

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  3. JP7:24 pm

    Thanks, George for that link, especially enjoyed that Phelps video - I've recently read "Men of the Tideway" and that also mentioned the Doggett race.

    see:
    http://captainjpslog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/book-review-men-of-tideway-by-dick.html

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  4. George A11:09 pm

    So many good books--not enough time to read them all! I've ordered a copy of "Boys in the boat". A tale about the working class crew that beat the Germans at the '36 Olympic games.

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  5. my2fish12:58 pm

    Very cool, I love the sound of bagpipes drifting across the water.

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