The enduring legacy of Churchill 60 years after his death – and why Trump sees him as an icon to emulate
Sir Winston Churchill died 60 years ago this week on 24 January 1965. His funeral took place on 30 January, following three days lying in state in the Palace of Westminster.
It was the only occasion since the Second World War when a full state funeral was held for someone who was not a member of the Royal Family.
Churchill was venerated then as the prime minister who had led Great Britain to victory over Hitler and the Nazis. He has repeatedly topped surveys asking for the “Greatest Briton” since.
In 1965, many people who had lived through the war were still alive. The Royal Mint struck a ‘Churchill Crown’, with a nominal value of five shillings, to mark his life and death. Such commemorative issues were a rarity in the 1960s.
The funeral itself was an exceptional and grand event, involving thousands of troops from all branches of the armed services. It had been planned for at least 12 years, with its ailing subject taking an active interest.
Its sombre splendour cemented Britain’s reputation for ceremonial spectacle but afterwards, French President General Charles de Gaulle, who Churchill had grudgingly allowed to be invited, commented: “Now Britain is no longer a great power.”
As remarkable as the national and international reaction at the time of his death, is the phenomenon that Sir Winston Churchill endures as an iconic figure, more than half a century later.
Churchill endures as an iconic figure. Pic AP
Yet another drama depicting Churchill is opening on stage in London. This time Roger Allam, Inspector Thursday in the Endeavour TV series, is playing the great man in Churchill in Moscow, following in the footsteps of other stars including Brian Cox, Albert Finney, Timothy Spall, Timothy West, Robert Hardy and Richard Burton.
Bust returned twice
Meanwhile, with the inauguration of a new US president, the location of a bust of Sir Winston has once again become a hot topic, in Britain’s right-wing media outlets at least.
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Donald Trump has re-instated the bronze by Sir Jacob Epstein in a prominent position in the Oval Office. It was originally a loan from the British Embassy to President George W Bush. Both Trump’s immediate presidential predecessors, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, had it moved elsewhere in the White House. Trump has now put it back twice.
Obama put a bust of Martin Luther King Junior in pride of place. Joe Biden favoured the Irish-American Bobby Kennedy. RFK senior that is, not his son RFK junior, the Kennedy family renegade now nominated as Trump’s health secretary.
There has long been another identical copy of the Epstein bust in the presidential private quarters – a gift to Lyndon Johnson in 1965.
Trump proudly showed the Churchill bust to then-PM Theresa May in 2017. Pic: AP
Churchill’s grandson, Nicholas Soames, a former Conservative MP who is now in the House of Lords, is unimpressed by all the fuss. He points out: “It’s loaned. I promise you, it’s not a sign of the strength or otherwise of the special relationship, whether or not Churchill’s head is in the White House.”
Trump’s admiration for Churchill is more personal than anglophile. His glaring official photo portrait for this year’s inauguration is almost a pastiche of Churchill’s frequent “we shall never surrender” poses, just as some Trump posts on social media garble some of Churchill’s most famous quotations. The Darkest Hour, featuring Gary Oldman as Churchill, is one of the films Trump has identified as his favourite movie.
Leader comparisons
The president’s closest allies like to draw comparisons between the two men. In 2020, when Trump muscled his way to St John’s Church opposite the White House for a photo-op after it had been damaged by a firebomb, his official spokesman said it was “a message of resilience and determination, like Churchill inspecting the bombing damage”, presumably of the Blitz.
Trump’s controversial photo-op outside St John’s – often called the Church of the Presidents. Pic: AP
After visiting his father following this summer’s deadly assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, Trump’s son Eric likened him to Churchill due to his “lack of political correctness”.
Trump is not the only US president to emulate Churchill. Both Eisenhower and George W Bush tried their hand at painting, inspired in part by Churchill’s skill with the brush.
Trump is a great admirer of pageantry and may be disappointed that, at 24.6 million, the TV audience for his second inauguration did not match either Joe Biden’s or Barack Obama’s first.
Part of the explanation may be increasing fragmentation of audiences by new media represented by the tech billionaires, who were invited to attend the ceremony in person by Trump.
In 1965 a similar number, 25 million, watched Churchill’s funeral in the UK, an overwhelming mass audience in a much smaller country than the US. There were only two TV channels then and the ceremony was broadcast live by both the BBC and ITV.
The naval party drawing the gun carriage bearing Sir Winston Churchill’s coffin during the funeral procession. Pic: AP
On the BBC, it was the last state occasion anchored by Richard Dimbleby, the patriarch of the Dimbleby broadcasting family. There were large TV audiences in the US as well. The funeral was not shown live on RTE in Ireland. Neither the Irish president nor prime minister attended the ceremony.
I was a small boy then and remember the coverage as one of the two great highlights of the black and white television era. The other was England’s World Cup victory in 1966. Extended outside broadcast from multiple locations were a rarity. Both the funeral and the cup final took place during the day on a Saturday – a time when, back then, there was usually nothing to watch on TV sets.
Rare honour of state funeral
The funeral was a television spectacular involving foot soldiers and cavalry, RAF fly-bys and travel by boat, train, manpower and hearse. The ceremonies had been in planning since Churchill had his first major stroke in 1953.
He was serving his second term as prime minister and the poor state of his health was covered up from the public, even though he was left partially paralysed. Officials in the know, working for the royals and at Westminster, set to work to prepare Operation Hope Not.
Crowds lined the street to pay their respects. Pic: AP
Putting the plan into action required a message from the Queen to parliament and a motion in parliament the day after Churchill died to authorise a state funeral.
Full state funerals are usually reserved for heads of state. The late Queen Mother, Princess Diana, the late Duke of Edinburgh, and former prime minister Margaret Thatcher were all given ceremonial funerals in recent years – but none of these were state funeral in terms of scale or international protocol. Britain’s next state funeral was for Elizabeth II in September 2022.
Churchill’s embalmed body lay in state round the clock in Westminster Hall for three days. More than 300,000 people filed past to pay their respects. Then the funeral began when Big Ben struck 9.45am. The bell was silenced for the day after that but there was a 90-gun salute in Hyde Park, a volley for each year of Churchill’s life.
Sir Winston’s coffin lay in state before his funeral, Churchill at Westminster Hall, as Elizabeth II’s would decades later
As soldiers and spectators lined the streets of London, Churchill’s coffin was placed on a gun carriage and pulled by 98 sailors from the Royal Navy all the way to St Paul’s Cathedral. It was carried inside with honorary pallbearers including three other British prime ministers and an Australian one. Clement Attlee, aged 82, stumbled on the steps and was given a chair to rest on.
Queen broke with protocol
After the service, the catafalque was drawn to the pier by Tower Bridge and taken upriver to Waterloo Station. Dockside cranes dipped as the boat passed. There is some dispute as to how voluntary this gesture by dockers really was. Even though his final journey was by locomotive down the Great Western Railway, Churchill insisted on going via Waterloo rather than Paddington station to make a point about British historical glory.
He was buried at St Martin’s Church, Bladon, on the Blenheim estate, seat of the Duke of Marlborough, a cousin, alongside his parents and other members of the Spencer Churchill family.
Churchill was the first prime minister of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Throughout the funeral day she broke with protocol to give him precedence. She hosted a reception for the dignitaries in attendance including the nine monarchs, 15 presidents and 14 serving prime ministers.
It is perhaps just as well that Donald Trump will not be around to see if his final obsequies beat that.
US
Democrat senator Chris Van Hollen who met wrongly deported man Kilmar Abrego Garcia says photos of pair with margaritas are staged
The Democrat senator who flew to meet the man wrongly deported to El Salvador has said photos of them with margaritas were staged by officials working for the country’s president.
Chris Van Hollen added that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported from the US last month, told him he has been moved from a notorious high-security prison in El Salvador to a detention centre with better conditions.
The deportation of Mr Garcia has become a flashpoint in the US, with Democrats casting it as a cruel consequence of Donald Trump’s disregard for the courts, while Republicans have criticised Democrats for defending him and argued his deportation is part of a larger effort to reduce crime.
Mr Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland, is being detained in the Central American country despite the US Supreme Court calling on the White House to facilitate his return home.
Trump officials have said Mr Garcia has ties to the violent MS-13 gang. However, Mr Garcia’s attorneys say the government has provided no evidence, and he has never been charged with any crime related to such activity.
Mr Van Hollen flew to El Salvador and met with Mr Garcia this week in an effort to help secure his return to America.
Chris Van Hollen and Kilmar Abrego Garcia, seen in a photo shared by El Salvador’s president. Pic: Nayib Bukele on X
Van Hollen (right) says margaritas were later brought to the table. Pic: Press Office Senator Van Hollen/AP
Speaking to reporters at Washington Dulles International airport after returning to the US on Friday, Mr Van Hollen said: “As the federal courts have said, we need to bring Mr Abrego Garcia home to protect his constitutional rights to due process. And it’s also important that people understand this case is not just about one man.
“It’s about protecting the constitutional rights of everybody who resides in the United States of America.”
Mr Van Hollen added the Trump administration is “asserting a right to stash away residents of this country” in foreign prisons “without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order”.
The senator also revealed Mr Garcia was brought from a detention centre to his hotel after initial requests to meet or speak with him were denied.
Mr Van Hollen said Mr Garcia told him he was “traumatised” after being detained at El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, but he had been moved to a “different facility” with better conditions nine days ago.
The senator said Mr Garcia told him he was worried about his family and that thinking about them was giving him “the strength to persevere” and to “keep going” under awful circumstances.
Mr Garcia’s wife, Jennifer, was at the news conference and wiped away tears as Mr Van Hollen spoke of her husband’s desire to speak to her.
Earlier, Mr Van Hollen had posted photos of himself meeting with Mr Garcia.
Chris Van Hollen speaks at Washington Dulles International Airport. Pic: AP
It came before El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele shared his own images of the meeting, which he claimed showed the pair “sipping margaritas” in the “tropical paradise of El Salvador”.
In an apparent sarcastic remark, Mr Bukele wrote that Mr Garcia had “miraculously risen” from the “death camps”.
Giving an account of what he says happened when the photos were taken, Mr Van Hollen said: “We just had glasses of water on the table. I think maybe some coffee.
“And as we were talking, one of the government people came over and deposited two other glasses on the table with ice. And I don’t know if it was salt or sugar round the top, but they looked like margaritas.
“If you look at the one they put in front of Kilmer, it actually had a little less liquid than the one in me in front of me to try to make it look, I assume like he drank out of it.
“Let me just be very clear. Neither of us touched the drinks that were in front of us.”
He added that people can tell he is telling the truth because if someone had sipped from one of the glass there would be a “gap” where the “salt or sugar” had disappeared.
Mr Van Hollen said the image shows the “lengths” the El Salvadorian president will go to “deceive people about what’s going on”.
“It also shows the lengths that the Trump administration and [President Trump] will go to, because when he was asked by a reporter about this, he just went along for the ride.”
Donald Trump has threatened to “take a pass” on attempts to secure a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia, as he denied the Kremlin was playing him.
The US president’s past confidence he could do a quick deal to end the conflict has proved to be misplaced, and now his administration has floated the prospect of abandoning its efforts to broker one.
US threatens to abandon peace talks – latest updates
Mr Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said the White House is prepared to “move on”, with little sign of fighting coming to an end some two months after talks began with Vladimir Putin.
Negotiations have since taken place with both Kyiv and Moscow, the latter of which Mr Trump has been accused of being soft on, but the war has continued well beyond its three-year anniversary.
Asked what it will take to secure a deal, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House he needed to see “enthusiasm” from both sides.
“I think I see it,” he added.
“It’s coming to a head right now.”
Donald Trump spoke about the war during a White House event on Friday. Pic: Reuters
‘I know when people are playing us’
Mr Trump dismissed the idea he was being played by Mr Putin, saying: “Nobody is playing me. I’m trying to help.”
“My whole life has been one big negotiation and I know when people are playing us and when they’re not,” he added.
Nonetheless, Sky News’ Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett said the White House raising the spectre of walking away from peace talks showed Mr Trump was frustrated by the lack of progress.
Before winning last November’s presidential election, he infamously claimed he could end the war in a day.
Echoing Mr Rubio, he’s now said “we’re just going to take a pass” if Russia or Ukraine “makes it very difficult”.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov insisted progress towards a deal had been made, but acknowledged the “complicated” situation was “not an easy one” to solve.
A 30-day moratorium on striking energy infrastructure targets was previously agreed, but both sides have since accused one another of breaching it.
Russia has also continued to launch deadly airstrikes on civilian infrastructure – the bloodiest of the more recent attacks saw at least 35 people killed in Sumy.
Kyiv and its European allies have said the continued attacks show Russia is not serious about peace.
Read more from Sky News:
Godfather-style gang war grips Scotland
How Israel’s attack on aid workers unfolded
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‘No military solution to Ukraine war’
Looking ahead, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy has indicated a “memorandum of intent” on a much vaunted US minerals deal could soon be signed.
Mr Trump wants to profit from the country’s natural resources in what he says is repayment for military aid.
It’s hoped America having a stake in the country could also help maintain any truce.
The deal was due to be done weeks ago but was derailed by his falling out with Mr Trump at the White House.
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More meetings are also expected among the so-called coalition of the willing, assembled by Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron to help police any peace deal.
Sir Keir spoke with Mr Trump on the phone on Saturday, with ending the Ukraine war a topic of conversation.
Hip hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has lost a bid to delay his upcoming sex-trafficking trial by two months.
US district judge Arun Subramanian said the 55-year-old rapper made his request too close to his trial, which is due to start next month.
Jury selection is currently scheduled for 5 May with opening statements set to be heard seven days later.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to five criminal counts including racketeering and sex trafficking.
Prosecutors with the Manhattan US attorney’s office accuse Combs of using his business empire to sexually abuse women between 2004 and 2024.
Combs’s lawyers say the sexual activity described by prosecutors was consensual.
In a court filing on Wednesday, Combs’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo asked Mr Subramanian to delay the trial because he needed more time to prepare his defence to two new charges which were brought on 4 April.
The charges were of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Mr Agnifilo also said his team needs extra time to review emails it wants an alleged victim to turn over.
The new allegations brought the total number of criminal charges against the rap mogul to five – following the three original counts, which also included racketeering conspiracy, filed in September.
Federal prosecutors were opposed to any delay, writing in a Thursday court filing that the additional charges brought
earlier this month did not amount to substantially new conduct.
They also said Combs was not entitled to the alleged victim’s communications.
Read more: Everything you need to know about the Sean Combs trial
A sketch of Combs during one of his court appearances. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, Mr Subramanian is weighing other evidentiary issues, such as whether to allow alleged victims to testify under pseudonyms.
Also known during his career as Puff Daddy and P Diddy, Combs founded Bad Boy Records and is credited with helping turn rappers and R&B singers such as Notorious B.I.G, Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans and Usher into stars in the 1990s and 2000s.
But prosecutors have said his success concealed a dark side.
They say his alleged abuse included having women take part in recorded sexual performances called “freak-offs” with male sex workers, who were sometimes transported across state lines.
Combs has been in jail in Brooklyn since September, having been denied bail.
He also faces dozens of civil lawsuits by women and men who have accused him of sexual abuse.
Combs has strenuously denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
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