Watford is to have its own memorial service to Sir Winston Churchill. It will be held at the Town Hall at 3pm on Sunday and members of the public are invited to take part.

The Mayor has expressed a wish that the service should also sound a note of thanksgiving.

There will be two readings – one by the Mayor from the Bible; the other by the Town Clerk from Pilgrim’s Progress.

Members of Bushey Urban Council stood in silent tribute before the start of their meeting on Tuesday.

The Chairman (Councillor Stuart Harford) said: “Our thoughts are just now preoccupied with vivid and touching memories of a very great and much-loved man who has just passed on and whose loss we mourn.

“A message of tribute and sympathy has been sent to Lady Churchill on behalf of the council and residents of Bushey.

“More was never owed to one man by people of this country. We were, in our darkest hour, inspired by the unmatched eloquence and courage of Sir Winston Churchill. Through him, too, many free people of the world were delivered from tyranny. He is assured of a place among the galaxy of the immortals, and his star will remain among the brightest.”

[From the Watford Observer of January 29, 1965]


NOSTALGIA NOTE: Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, DL, FRS, RA is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th Century. He is the only British Prime Minister to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature since its inception in 1901 and was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States. Upon his death, Elizabeth II granted him the honour of a state funeral, which saw one of the largest assemblies of world statesmen in history. He was named the Greatest Briton of all time in a 2002 poll. He died, aged 90, on January 24, 1965.