Funeral Anniversary Tribute To 'Great' Churchill

Britain has paid tribute to Winston Churchill - "a great leader and a great Briton" - on the 50th anniversary of the wartime leader's state funeral.

Churchill was praised by David Cameron as the boat that carried his coffin half a century ago made a commemorative journey down the Thames.

Relatives of the WWII prime minister retraced his final journey along the river through London on board the Havengore on 30 January, 1965.

Other small boats formed a flotilla as it travelled to the Palace of Westminster where a wreath was laid.

Tower Bridge was also raised, as part of a series of events to mark the anniversary.

Ahead of the river journey, Mr Cameron said Britain must draw on the "courage and resolve" inspired by Churchill to battle the affronts to freedom faced today.

He paid tribute to "a great leader and a great Briton" after laying a wreath at the feet of the statue of his predecessor in the House of Commons Members' Lobby.

Mr Cameron said Churchill is still remembered with affection by the country as a statesman, bon viveur and reformer - but most of all as a patriot.

"He knew that Britain was not just a place on the map but a force in the world, with a destiny to shape events and a duty to stand up for freedom," he said in the shadow of the famous bronze sculpture of Churchill.

"That is why in 1940 - after France had fallen, before America or Russia had entered the war - he said this: 'Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him all Europe may be free - and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.'

"Churchill was confident that freedom and democracy would win out over barbarism and tyranny in the end... and it did.

"And with every affront to freedom in this century, we must remember that courage and resolve in the last century."

Wreaths were laid by Commons Speaker John Bercow and Tory MP Sir Nicholas Soames - Churchill's grandson - after a service in Parliament's St Mary's Undercroft chapel.

All three main party leaders took part along with Stockton Sixth Form College student Nathania Ewruje.

Nathania was the winner of the English-Speaking Union's (ESU) Winston Churchill Cup for Public Speaking.

Churchill, the Queen's first prime minister, was honoured with a full state funeral, with a service at St Paul's before his coffin was borne down the Thames.

One of the most iconic images of the day was the cranes in the London docks "bowing" as the Havengore passed by.

The funeral was watched by an estimated worldwide television audience of 350 million people.

Chris Ryland, who now owns the Havengore and has spent 10 years renovating it, said he skipped school with a friend and hitchhiked to London to see Churchill lying in state.

"We will have nine members of the Churchill family aboard, descendants of Sir Winston, and I think for all of us it will be a very emotional day," he said.

"It's recreating something that happened 50 years ago that really was a national and international event."

Phil Reed, director of the Churchill War Rooms in London, says the number of visitors is higher than ever, as Sir Winston remains a figure with international appeal.

But while the exhibition highlights how 1940 defined him as a wartime hero, it is also clear he made mistakes and was not universally loved.

Mr Reed told Sky News: "He drank, he smoked, he liked the luxuries of life.

"He was a man whose motto virtually was 'I am easily satisfied, I like the best'.

"We know the dockers weren't great friends of his, we know that the far-left wing weren't great admirers because he wasn't of their sort.

"But he was a man who rose above that."

Churchill's career in the House of Commons began in 1900 and spanned 64 years, making it the longest in the 20th century.

He held numerous ministerial positions and served as prime minister twice.

Known as Britain's great wartime leader, he died on 24 January, 1965, aged 90.