Operation Hope Not: 40th anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill´s funeral

Catalogue reference: CAB 21/5978

A letter from The Queen´s Private Secretary, Sir Alan Lascelles, to the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Norman Brook, instructing her top civil servants to arrange a funeral similar to that organised for the Duke of Wellington´s funeral in 1852.

Planning for ´Hope Not´ was restricted to the upper echelons of government, with one man responsible for coordinating the funeral - Earl Marshal. Nevertheless, the wishes of the family were always considered; Lady Churchill and Sir Winston´s Private Secretary, Anthony Montague-Browne, were regularly consulted on the arrangements covering the funeral - Sir Winston himself was said to be ´unwilling to address his mind to the subject.´

Over the years planning became more elaborate; measures were even drawn up should Sir Winston die whilst on holiday abroad. As contingencies became more detailed, more people became involved. Arrangements were made with undertakers and embalmers. Broadcast coverage was organised with the BBC and Independent Television. Commonwealth High Commissioners and certain Ambassadors were also briefed in ´general terms´ of the funeral preparations, but details were always marked Confidential.

Catalogue reference: PREM 13/204

On 21 March 1958, the first draft of the master paper on ´Procedure on the Death of Sir Winston Churchill´ was produced. This paper was revised at least eight times before the final version of 2 November 1964, which was the one in force when Sir Winston died on 24 January 1965.

Catalogue reference: CAB 21/5980

In February 1958, contingency arrangements covering the death of Sir Winston Churchill became more urgent when he became ill while on holiday in France, and were extended to cover the possibility of his dying abroad. Anthony Montague-Browne gave advance warning of Churchill´s foreign travels so that plans could be revised accordingly. This note outlines the procedures to cover the death of Sir Winston whilst abroad.

Catalogue reference: CAB 21/5978

On 21 March 1958, Sir Norman Brook had sounded out the Director-General of the BBC, Sir Ian Jacob, about plans for broadcast on the occasion of Sir Winston´s death.

Catalogue reference: PREM 11/5211

In December 1959, after it was thought that the plans could be filed away, Sir Winston ensured that the plans were not shelved for long. He changed his mind about his final resting place.

From 1960, plans for the funeral (including ceremonial and order of service) were laid with very little alteration before the event in 1965. Speeches for the Prime Minister paying tribute to Churchill were regularly drafted from 1960. Even funeral invitations were printed in advance, with the final date left off so that it could be added by hand. In fact, because of all the advanced preparations, when the news broke in January 1965 only six days, instead of the expected seven, were needed to finalise all the funeral arrangements - including sending out the invitations.

Catalogue reference: PREM 13/1374

Since 1960, the speech for the Prime Minister´s television tribute to Sir Winston Churchill had been regularly updated. This was the final draft, used by Harold Wilson during his television address on 24 January 1965.

In total, 113 countries were invited to send one representative to the funeral, with the exception of the United States, France and Russia, who were allowed to invite an additional two. Among the world leaders that came to attend were four kings and a queen, five other heads of state and 16 prime ministers. Yet the decision to restrict representatives was not welcomed by all; Italian newspapers reported that the limitations caused some commotion.

Catalogue reference: PREM 13/209

The decision to restrict national representatives was not welcomed in Italy where newspaper editorials were littered with complaints that the government took particular offence at being restricted to only one representative. Oliver Wright, Private Secretary to the Prime Minister Harold Wilson, wrote at the top ´typically Italian´.

Catalogue reference: PREM 13/204

These documents show the military precision of ´Operation Hope Not´. Produced the day before the funeral, they give a minute-by-minute account of the funeral procession.

Despite the crisp January weather, over 320,000 members of the public queued to file past Churchill´s coffin as it lay in State in Westminster Hall from 27 to 30 January. Even more people spilled onto the streets for the funeral procession from Westminster to St Paul´s.

After the funeral service at St Paul´s, Churchill´s coffin was taken to Tower Pier and loaded onto a Port of London authority launch to cruise along the River Thames to Festival Pier, and then onto Waterloo station. As the launch left Tower Pier, the Royal Air Force gave their final salute to the once wartime leader with a ´fly past´, only to be equalled by the London´s dockers lowering their cranes one by one as the launch sailed past.

As Churchill´s coffin left Waterloo station for its final resting place near Blenheim Palace - on a train pulled by a Battle of Britain class steam locomotive the ´Winston Churchill´ - the State funeral, and twelve years of precise military planning, came to an end.