Perhaps the highest of these was the state funeral held at St Paul's Cathedral, after his body had lain in state for three days in Westminster Hall,[1] an honour rarely granted to anyone other than a British monarch or consort. Queen Elizabeth II also broke protocol by giving precedence to a subject, arriving at the cathedral ahead of Churchill's coffin.[2] The funeral also saw one of the largest assemblages of statesmen in the world.[3]
Throughout his life, Churchill also accumulated other honours and awards. He was awarded 37 other orders and medals between 1895 and 1964. Of the orders, decorations and medals Churchill received, 20 were awarded by the United Kingdom, three by France, two each by Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg and Spain, and one each by the Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Libya, Nepal, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United States. Ten were awarded for active service as a British Army officer in Cuba, India, Egypt, South Africa, the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium. The greater number of awards were given in recognition of his service as a minister of the British government.[4]
Coat of arms
Coat of Arms of Winston Churchill as a GentlemanCoat of arms of Sir Winston Spencer-Churchill
Churchill was not a peer, never held a title of nobility, and remained a commoner all his life. As the grandson of 7th Duke of Marlborough, he bore the quartered coat of arms of the Spencer and Churchill families. Paul Courtenay observes that "It would be normal in these circumstances for the paternal arms (Spencer) to take precedence over the maternal (Churchill), but because the Marlborough dukedom was senior to the Sunderland earldom, the procedure was reversed in this case." In 1817, an augmentation of honour was granted commemorating the victory of Blenheim by the 1st Duke.[5]
As Churchill's father, Lord Randolph Churchill, was the surviving second son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough, his arms should have been differenced, by strict heraldic rules, with a mark of cadency. Traditionally, this would have been a heraldic crescent. Those differenced arms would have been inherited by Winston Churchill. This never seems to have been used by Lord Randolph or Winston. As arms are used to differentiate two bearers, there doesn't seem to have been any confusion between Churchill's arms as a gentleman with many decorations and later Knight of the Garter, those of his brother as a plain gentleman, and his cousin, the Duke of Marlborough, which were adorned with the insignia of a duke. As a Knight of the Garter, Churchill was also entitled to supporters in his achievement. But, he never seems to have got around to applying for them.[6]
The resulting heraldic achievement is: quarterly 1st and 4th, Sable a lion rampant Argent on a canton of the second a cross Gules (Churchill); 2nd and 3rd, quarterly Argent and Gules, in the second and third quarters a fret Or, over all on a bend Sable three escallops of the first (Spencer); in chief, on an escutcheon Argent a cross Gules surmounted by an inescutcheon Azure charged with three fleurs-de-lys Or.[5]
When he became a Knight of the Garter in 1953, his arms were encircled by the garter of the order, and at the same time the helms were made open, which is the mark of a knight. His motto was that of the Dukes of Marlborough, Fiel pero desdichado (Spanish for "Faithful but unfortunate").[7]
He had previously been made an honorary citizen of the City of Paris on 12 November 1944 while visiting the city following the liberation. During the ceremony at the Hôtel de Ville he received the Nazi flag that once flew from the Hôtel de Ville.[10]
Proposed dukedoms
In 1945, King George VI offered Churchill to make him the Duke of Dover – the first non-royal dukedom to be created since 1874 – as well to become a Knight of the Garter; however, Churchill turned down both.[11][12] Since 1900, only members of the British royal family have been made dukes, so the offer was exceptional.[13]
In 1955, after retiring as prime minister, Churchill was again offered elevation to the peerage in the rank of duke by Queen Elizabeth II. By custom, prime ministers retiring from the Commons were usually offered earldoms, so a dukedom was a sign of special honour. One title that was considered was Duke of London, a city whose name had never been used in a peerage title. Churchill had represented divisions of three different counties in Parliament, and his home, Chartwell, was in a fourth, so the city in which he had spent most of his time during fifty years in politics was seen as a suitable choice. Churchill considered accepting the offer of a dukedom but eventually declined it; the lifestyle of a duke would have been expensive, and accepting any peerage might have cut short a renewed career in the Commons for his son Randolph, and in due course, might also have prevented one for his grandson Winston.[14] At the time, there was no procedure for disclaiming a title; the procedure was first established by the Peerage Act 1963. Upon inheriting a peerage, either Randolph or Winston would immediately be unseated from the House of Commons.[15]
Painting of Churchill in his air commodore's uniformChurchill in his Trinity House uniform with Field Marshal Alan Brooke (left) and Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, 1944
On 4 April 1939, Churchill was made an Honorary Air Commodore of No. 615 (County of Surrey) Squadron ("Churchill's Own") in the Auxiliary Air Force.[20] In March 1943, the Air Council awarded Churchill honorary wings.[13] He retained the appointment until 11 March 1957 when 615 Squadron was disbanded. He did, however, continue to hold the rank of Honorary Air Commodore.[21] He frequently wore his uniform as an Air Commodore during World War II.
In 1945, he was mentioned by Halvdan Koht among seven candidates that were qualified for the Nobel Peace Prize. However, he did not explicitly nominate any of them. Actually, he nominated Cordell Hull.[25]
On 4 July 1947, Churchill was admitted as an hereditary member of the Connecticut Society of the Cincinnati. He was presented with his insignia and diploma when he visited Washington, D.C., on January 16, 1952.[26]
A prolific painter in oils, in 1948 he was elected as an Honorary Academician Extraordinary by the Royal Academy: a highly unusual honour for an amateur artist.[27]
In 1953, he was made a Knight of the Garter, which gave him the title Sir Winston Churchill, KG. He also won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending high human values."[29]
In 1956, Churchill received the Karlspreis (known in English as the Charlemagne Award), an award by the German city of Aachen to those who most contribute to the European idea and European peace.[31]
Also in 1961, the Chartered Institute of Building[33] named Churchill as an Honorary Fellow for his services and passion for the construction industry.
In 1964, Civitan International presented Churchill with its first World Citizenship Award for service to the world community.[34]
When Churchill was 88, he was asked by the Duke of Edinburgh how he would like to be remembered. He replied with a scholarship like the Rhodes scholarship but for the wider masses. After his death, the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was established in the United Kingdom and Australia. A Churchill Trust Memorial Day was held in Australia, raising $4.3 million. Since that time, the Churchill Trust in Australia has supported over 3,000 scholarship recipients in a diverse variety of fields, where merit, either on the basis of past experience or potential, and the propensity to contribute to the community, have been the only criteria.[citation needed]
In addition, the Danish DFDS line named a car ferry Winston Churchill, and the Corporation of Trinity House named one of their lighthouse tenders similarly. A sail training ship was named Sir Winston Churchill.
In September 1947, the Southern Railway named a Battle of Britain class steam locomotive, No. 21C151, after him. Churchill was offered the opportunity to perform the naming ceremony, but he declined. Later, the locomotive was used to pull his funeral train, and it is now kept in York's National Railway Museum.
The Churchill tank, or Infantry Tank Mk IV; was a British Second World War tank named after Churchill, who was Prime Minister at the time of its design.[39]
The Churchill Park (Danish: Churchillparken) located in central Copenhagen, Denmark, is named after Churchill in commemoration of Churchill and the British help to Denmark in the liberation of Denmark during World War II.
The south end of Churchill Avenue in Ottawa was the site of the Churchill Arms Motor Hotel, which many residents of Ottawa remember for its three-storey exterior painting of the silhouette of Winston Churchill.[40] Churchill Avenue was itself renamed from Main Street after the Second World War.
In St. Albert, Alberta Sir Winston Churchill Ave runs east to west through the city.
Gibraltar: The main road connecting the border with Spain and the airport to the city centre is called Winston Churchill Avenue.
Netherlands: In the Netherlands, about ninety roads and streets are named after Winston Churchill, including Churchilllaan[nl], a major avenue in Leiden (part of the N206 road) and Churchill-laan[nl], an avenue in Amsterdam.[41]
New Zealand: The main road through Crofton Downs, a suburb of Wellington is named Churchill Drive. Several streets in the Suburb are named after Winston Churchill (including Winston Street and Spencer Street,) family members (including Randolph Road and Clementine Way,) or other connections to Churchill (including Downing Street, Chartwell Drive and Admirialty Street.) [42]
Norway: Streets in the cities of Trondheim and Tromsø are named in Winston Churchill's honour. Namely "Churchills vei"[43] in Jakobsli, Trondheim and "Winston Churchills vei" in Tromsø.
The national and Commonwealth memorial to Churchill is Churchill College, Cambridge, which was founded in 1958 and opened in 1960. It is also home to the Churchill Archives Centre, which holds the papers of Sir Winston Churchill and over 570 collections of personal papers and archives documenting the history of the Churchill era and after.[44]
The Churchill occupying an entire block in New York City's Midtown Manhattan neighborhood is a residential building named after him, and features his portrait in the lobby and rooftop pool (rare for NYC residences).[46]
The city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada has a stop on the Edmonton LRT system and a public square named in his honour. Churchill Square, is the main square in that city and was renovated in 2004 for the city's 100th anniversary of incorporation.
On the right, the black border used by Pol Roger on bottles shipped to the UK from 1965 to 1990
He appeared on the 1965 crown, the first commoner to be placed on a British coin.[47] He made another appearance on a crown issued in 2010 to honour the 70th anniversary of his Premiership.[48]
Pol Roger's prestige cuvée Champagne, Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill, is named after him. The first vintage, 1975, was launched in 1984 at Blenheim Palace. The name was accepted by his heirs as Churchill was a faithful customer of Pol Roger. Following Churchill's death in 1965, Pol Roger added a black border to the label on bottles shipped to the UK as a sign of mourning. This was not lifted until 1990.[49]
The Julieta (7" × 47), a size of cigar, is also commonly known as a Churchill.[citation needed]
Churchill has been included in numerous polls, mostly connected with greatness. Time named him its Man of the Year for 1940,[50] and "Man of the Half-Century" in 1949.[51] A BBC survey, of January 2000, saw Churchill voted the greatest British prime minister of the 20th century. In 2002, BBC TV viewers and web site users voted him the greatest Briton of all time in a ten-part series called Great Britons, a poll attracting almost two million votes.[52]
Many statues have been created in likeness and in honour of Churchill. Numerous buildings and squares have also been named in his honour. The most prominent example of a statue of Churchill is the official statue commissioned by the government and created by Ivor Roberts-Jones which now stands in Parliament Square. It was unveiled by Churchill's widow, Lady Churchill, on 1 November 1973, and was Grade II listed in 2008.[53][54] In June 2020 when anti-racism protests occurred in the United Kingdom during the George Floyd protests, the statue of Sir Winston Churchill located in Parliament Square was vandalised when a protester painted graffiti on the statue reading “was a racist” underneath Churchill’s name which was crossed out by the same vandal who wrote the sentence. A couple of days after this event took place the statue was cleaned and it did not sustain any permanent damage.
Winston Churchill V-sign monument in New Orleans
Another Roberts-Jones statue of Churchill displaying the V sign[55] is prominently placed in New Orleans (erected in 1977).
After Churchill was declared the greatest Briton of all time in the BBC poll and television series Great Britons (see above), a statue was erected in his honour and now stands at the BBC television studios. Churchill is also memorialised by many statues and a public square in New York, in recognition of his life, and also because his mother was from New York. His maternal family is also memorialised in streets, parks, and neighbourhoods throughout the city.
In 2012, a statue of Churchill was erected in Jerusalem in recognition of his "staunch and unwavering support of the Jewish cause and their desire for a homeland".[57]
Orders, decorations and medals
This is a list of the orders, decorations, and medals received by Winston Churchill, arranged in order of precedence.
↑ Robson, Thomas, The British Herald, or Cabinet of Armorial Bearings of the Nobility & Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland, Volume I, Turner & Marwood, Sunderland, 1830, p. 401 (CHU-CLA).
↑ (Although some references report Churchill was awarded the French Legion of Honour, it is not listed among his honours at the Churchill Centre. However, it is significant that Churchill received the Médaille militaire, which is only awarded (for high leadership) to holders of the Legion's Grand Cross). The Listing of Foreign recipients of the Legion of Honour reports Churchill as "Sir Winston Churchill, Grand-croix de la Légion d'honneur (1958);" (The Grand-croix being awarded to Foreign Heads of state).
↑ McWhirter, Ross and Norris (1972). The Guinness Book of Records. Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p.184. ISBN0900424060.At the time of publication the world record was the 57 conferred on Andrew Carnegie who was born in Scotland but emigrated in 1848, subsequently becoming a US citizen.
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The statue of Winston Churchill in Woodford, London, is a bronze sculpture of the British statesman, created by David McFall in 1958–9. The statue commemorates Churchill's role as the member for the parliamentary constituency of Woodford. Churchill was elected to the Epping seat in 1924 and held it until 1945 when the new constituency of Woodford was created. Churchill then held this seat until his retirement in 1964. The statue is a Grade II listed structure.
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