Sir Winston Churchill’s state funeral was 60 years ago, on 30th January 1965. As a mounted constable, I was on duty throughout that extraordinary day.
I had paraded at City Road police stables at 3am. I then rode Marquis (pictured), an imperturbable grey gelding, to Hampstead to collect another horse I led to Trafalgar Square.
I was designated orderly to a deputy commander, whose mount I handed over. He was in charge of a specified section of the processional route to be taken by the funeral cortège.
The primary role of the police was to maintain order. The procession, with its gun carriage hauled by Royal Navy sailors, completed the journey from Westminster with no mishaps.
Police horses that were ridden for many hours that day were rested in St James’s Park at opportune moments.
Saddle girths were loosened, and the horses watered from buckets brought from one of the stables in a station van. Their feed bags had been carried with us. The Met Police catering service turned up with a mobile canteen – sandwiches and a hot drink for the dismounted riders.
The senior police officers returned to their horses later, having dined elsewhere.
Following the service in St Paul’s, Sir Winston’s coffin was taken to Waterloo by a Thames launch and placed aboard a steam train to be conveyed to St Martin’s Church, Bladon, Oxfordshire.
A poignant scene was later described by a reporter aboard the train as it crept through the English countryside. He was deeply moved as lines of people, soberly dressed, walked
slowly across the fields on either side of the railway line – doffing hats and bowing heads as the train passed.
Throughout the war – I clearly remember the final year – Churchill had epitomised all that was best in terms of the defiance, resilience and fortitude of the nation.
I mused on this, later in the day, as I rode Marquis and led the other horse back to Hampstead police stables. Then, wearily, talking nonsense to Marquis, I continued back to City Road – a round trip of 22 miles that day!
By Martin Gosling, Chelmondiston, Suffolk, who receives £50
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