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Operation Hope Not
Operation Hope Not was the code name of the plan for the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill. It was titled The State Funeral of The Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, K.G., O.M., C.H., and was begun in 1953, twelve years before his death. The detailed plan was prepared in 1958. Churchill led the country to victory in the Second World War (1939–1945) during his first term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. While in his second term he was struck by a major stroke in 1953 that caused concern for his health. The British Government started a meticulous preparation, as officially decreed by Queen Elizabeth II, to be of a commemoration "on a scale befitting his position in history". As remarked by Lord Mountbatten, Churchill "kept living and the pallbearers kept dying" such that the plan had to be revised several times in the years before his death in 1965.
The official project was undertaken by the Duke of Norfolk, as the Earl Marshal, to be the grandest state funeral for a person outside the royal family since that of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Churchill died on 24 January 1965, and the final plan titled State Funeral of the Late Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, K.G., O.M., C.H. was issued on 26 January and implemented on 30 January 1965. During the funeral his body lay in state in Westminster Hall. The main funeral service was held at St Paul's Cathedral. The coffin was transported on MV Havengore along the River Thames to Waterloo station, and thence by train to Bladon, Oxfordshire, where it was interred in the St Martin's Church, Bladon, near his father's tomb.
Original copies of the final documents, exceeding 415 pages, issued on 26 January 1965 are held in a number of repositories, and one privately held copy was auctioned in 2017.
Planning for the funeral of Winston Churchill began after the prime minister had a major stroke in 1953. The incident at a party at Downing Street was kept secret by the family. Queen Elizabeth II was among the few who were informed. It was the Queen who insisted that a funeral plan should be prepared should the time come. The venue for lying in state was set in 1957. Writing to the Duke of Norfolk, George Cholmondeley, 5th Marquess of Cholmondeley and the Lord Great Chamberlain, mentioned that Westminster Hall would be the place. The actual plan was initiated in 1958, as indicated in a letter from Anthony Montague Browne, Churchill's private secretary, to Lady Churchill in the summer of 1958, which stated:
The Queen has intimated that, if it is in accordance with the wishes of the family, there should be plans for Sir Winston to have a State Funeral, and that the Duke of Norfolk, as Earl Marshal, should be responsible for them.
It is suggested that there should be a Lying in State in Westminster Hall followed by the Service at St Paul's Cathedral. This is thought to be more fitting than Westminster Abbey, as St Paul's has the precedents of comparatively recent great national heroes, such as Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson and the Duke of Wellington. Thereafter there would be a small private interment service at Chartwell.
I have not told the Duke of Norfolk of Sir Winston's wish to be buried at Chartwell, but the Duke was assuming that it would be in the country (he supposed Blenheim [Blenheim Palace was the birthplace and ancestral home of Churchill]) although Westminster Abbey had offered itself.
Thus the funeral plan was drawn in its elaborate form in 1958, when the then-Prime Minister Harold Macmillan took the initiative. On 21 March 1958, the first draft of the plan, titled Procedure on the Death of Sir Winston Churchill, was produced. The plan was kept as a personal and confidential document. It was decided that Churchill would be carried from Westminster Hall to St Paul's by a gun carriage, from Thames to Gravesend in a two-hour sail, and then to Chartwell in a 25-mile journey which would take 73 minutes. In 1959 a steam yacht St. Katharine was initially proposed for transportation on the Thames, but as it was under repair, the Trinity House yacht Patricia was chosen. The third version of the plan was prepared on 10 February 1960. The boat was changed to MV Havengore, and its exact timing was specified as 12:50 p.m. for departure and 1:05 p.m. for arrival at the destination, now to be adjacent to Waterloo Station. By October 1960 the general details were approved, including invitations and the funeral procession, as indicated in Browne's letter to Lady Churchill on 16 October, stating:
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Operation Hope Not
Operation Hope Not was the code name of the plan for the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill. It was titled The State Funeral of The Right Honourable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, K.G., O.M., C.H., and was begun in 1953, twelve years before his death. The detailed plan was prepared in 1958. Churchill led the country to victory in the Second World War (1939–1945) during his first term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. While in his second term he was struck by a major stroke in 1953 that caused concern for his health. The British Government started a meticulous preparation, as officially decreed by Queen Elizabeth II, to be of a commemoration "on a scale befitting his position in history". As remarked by Lord Mountbatten, Churchill "kept living and the pallbearers kept dying" such that the plan had to be revised several times in the years before his death in 1965.
The official project was undertaken by the Duke of Norfolk, as the Earl Marshal, to be the grandest state funeral for a person outside the royal family since that of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Churchill died on 24 January 1965, and the final plan titled State Funeral of the Late Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, K.G., O.M., C.H. was issued on 26 January and implemented on 30 January 1965. During the funeral his body lay in state in Westminster Hall. The main funeral service was held at St Paul's Cathedral. The coffin was transported on MV Havengore along the River Thames to Waterloo station, and thence by train to Bladon, Oxfordshire, where it was interred in the St Martin's Church, Bladon, near his father's tomb.
Original copies of the final documents, exceeding 415 pages, issued on 26 January 1965 are held in a number of repositories, and one privately held copy was auctioned in 2017.
Planning for the funeral of Winston Churchill began after the prime minister had a major stroke in 1953. The incident at a party at Downing Street was kept secret by the family. Queen Elizabeth II was among the few who were informed. It was the Queen who insisted that a funeral plan should be prepared should the time come. The venue for lying in state was set in 1957. Writing to the Duke of Norfolk, George Cholmondeley, 5th Marquess of Cholmondeley and the Lord Great Chamberlain, mentioned that Westminster Hall would be the place. The actual plan was initiated in 1958, as indicated in a letter from Anthony Montague Browne, Churchill's private secretary, to Lady Churchill in the summer of 1958, which stated:
The Queen has intimated that, if it is in accordance with the wishes of the family, there should be plans for Sir Winston to have a State Funeral, and that the Duke of Norfolk, as Earl Marshal, should be responsible for them.
It is suggested that there should be a Lying in State in Westminster Hall followed by the Service at St Paul's Cathedral. This is thought to be more fitting than Westminster Abbey, as St Paul's has the precedents of comparatively recent great national heroes, such as Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson and the Duke of Wellington. Thereafter there would be a small private interment service at Chartwell.
I have not told the Duke of Norfolk of Sir Winston's wish to be buried at Chartwell, but the Duke was assuming that it would be in the country (he supposed Blenheim [Blenheim Palace was the birthplace and ancestral home of Churchill]) although Westminster Abbey had offered itself.
Thus the funeral plan was drawn in its elaborate form in 1958, when the then-Prime Minister Harold Macmillan took the initiative. On 21 March 1958, the first draft of the plan, titled Procedure on the Death of Sir Winston Churchill, was produced. The plan was kept as a personal and confidential document. It was decided that Churchill would be carried from Westminster Hall to St Paul's by a gun carriage, from Thames to Gravesend in a two-hour sail, and then to Chartwell in a 25-mile journey which would take 73 minutes. In 1959 a steam yacht St. Katharine was initially proposed for transportation on the Thames, but as it was under repair, the Trinity House yacht Patricia was chosen. The third version of the plan was prepared on 10 February 1960. The boat was changed to MV Havengore, and its exact timing was specified as 12:50 p.m. for departure and 1:05 p.m. for arrival at the destination, now to be adjacent to Waterloo Station. By October 1960 the general details were approved, including invitations and the funeral procession, as indicated in Browne's letter to Lady Churchill on 16 October, stating: