Winston Churchill funeral.

[Bilboro-lad 294]

I'm sure this has been posted before, but I've not seen it.

We were a different breed in those days. A different race to what we are today.

I'm glad I am old enough to have seen it, to remember who we once were and what we stood for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87Xkr8z3lEo&feature=share

[FLY2 10,108]

Thank you for my freedom sir, RIP

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

We could do with another like him.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

A great man indeed.

[Stan 386]

We could do with another like him.

We did have two (almost as great). Try the man who started as a private soldier (volunteer) at the beginning of WW2 and ended up a Brigadier General at the end. A man who was a brilliant academic (full professor at 25) only pushed out by the establishment because he was too honest and straight and brilliant. The other I will not mention,because that person cannot be named in the same breath as the other two!

[MELTONSTILTON 452]

I still have the Churchill Crown my Mum gave me in 1965, when the great man died.

[ChrisB 150]

Churchill planned his own funeral meticulously well in advance of his death. One thing he stipulated was that his funeral train should go from Waterloo Station to Handborough in Oxfordshire, the nearest station to Bladon, his burial place.

One of his aides said to him 'But Sir, you don't go from Waterloo to Oxfordshire, you go from Paddington on the Western Region'

Churchill knew though, that there was a connection from the Southern to the Western at Reading.

' If I die before DeGaulle and he comes to my funeral, I want him to be reminded that we beat the French at the Battle of Waterloo!'

And he also knew that the Southern Region had a locomotive named 'Winston Churchill' and it was used to take him on his final journey.

He retained his faculties to the end. Neither the booze nor the cigars ever did him any harm!

[Stan 386]

Not as world moving as Churchill, but still a great man.

Civil rights leader Nelson Mandela dies

The famed anti-apartheid revolutionary and politician who served as president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999 died Thursday at age 95.

[alisoncc 379]

I would request that the moderators remove #8. To mention a terrorist in the same vein is abhorrent. So Stan are you proposing a state funeral for Bin Laden, or the guys who killed Drummer Rigby when they die

[alisoncc 379]

Deleted

[DJBrenton 738]

I would request that the moderators remove #8. To mention a terrorist in the same vein is abhorrent. So Stan are you proposing a state funeral for Bin Laden, or the guys who killed Drummer Rigby when they die

If Mandela was a terrorist then so were the French resistance.

[zab 47]

I would request that the moderators remove #8. To mention a terrorist in the same vein is abhorrent. So Stan are you proposing a state funeral for Bin Laden, or the guys who killed Drummer Rigby when they die

What a load of nonsense.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

At least we still have the engine that pulled the train. Bulleid Battle of Britain Class 4-6-2 pacific with the great mans name on both sides. It's at York Museum. The A4 Pacific with the Eisenhower's name on it is still there but not for long. I can't remember any locos with Charles de Gaulle's name on it. Not in this country anyway.

[tomlinson 879]

Interesting views on Winston Churchill. I remember my dad, an ex miner, saying he was no friend of miners and I worked with an ex Welsh miner who told me it was all he could do to stop his dad dancing on Churchill's grave! A man of the hour!

[FLY2 10,108]

Most members wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Winston Churchill, and the rest would be speaking German and be downtrodden or indoctrinated with Hitlers beliefs

[tomlinson 879]

#15 Doubtless you are correct but there was conflict between miners and Churchill about which I know little, only what I've been told. I have heard him quoted as saying he would make miners eat grass. Does anyone have first experience of this or has it literally died away?

[FLY2 10,108]

Popular or not, I'm sure the majority of the population would have followed him to the end of the earth.

[tomlinson 879]

I mentioned this because of the strong mining community within Notts and wondered what the feeling was. A quick look on the net under 'Churchill and the coal miners' reveals a lot.

[Rob.L 1,086]

Looking at his page on Wikipedia, it says:

In 1910, a number of coal miners in the Rhondda Valley began what has come to be known as the Tonypandy Riot.[69] The Chief Constable of Glamorgan requested troops be sent in to help police quell the rioting. Churchill, learning that the troops were already travelling, allowed them to go as far as Swindon and Cardiff, but blocked their deployment. On 9 November, The Times criticised this decision. In spite of this, the rumour persists that Churchill had ordered troops to attack, and his reputation in Wales and in Labour circles never recovered.[76]

and

Churchill's role in the events at Tonypandy during the conflict left a negative attitude towards him in South Wales, that still persists. The main point of contention was his decision to allow troops to be sent to Wales. Although this was an unusual move, and was seen by those in Wales as an overreaction, his Tory opponents suggested that he should have acted with greater vigour.[4]:[p111] The troops acted more circumspectly and were commanded with more common sense than the police, whose role under Lionel Lindsay was, in the words of historian David Smith, 'more like an army of occupation'.[4]:[p111] The troops were also generally viewed with less hostility than the local and Metropolitan police.

Despite these facts, the incident continued to haunt Churchill through his career. Such was the strength of feeling, that almost forty years later, when speaking in Cardiff during the General Election campaign of 1950, Churchill was forced to address the issue, stating: "When I was Home Secretary in 1910, I had a great horror and fear of having to become responsible for the military firing on a crowd of rioters and strikers. Also, I was always in sympathy with the miners..."[4]:[p122]

A major factor in the dislike of Churchill's use of the military, was not in any specific action undertaken by the troops, but the fact that their presence prevented any strike action which might have ended the strike early in the miners' favour.[4]:[p112] The troops also ensured that trials of rioters, strikers and miner leaders would take place and be successfully prosecuted in Pontypridd in 1911. The defeat of the miners in 1911 was, in the eyes of the local community, a direct consequence of state intervention without any negotiation, and this action was seen as a direct result of Churchill's actions.[4]:[p112] In 2010, 99 years after the riots, a Welsh local council made objections to a street being named after Churchill in the Vale of Glamorgan, because of his sending troops into the Rhondda.[10]

Political fallout for Churchill also continued. In 1940, when Chamberlain's war-time government was faltering, Clement Attlee secretly warned that the Labour Party might not follow Churchill, because of his association with Tonypandy.[4]:[p112] In 1978, there was uproar in the House of Commons, when Churchill's grandson, also Winston Churchill, replying to a routine question on miners' pay, was warned by James Callaghan not to pursue 'the vendetta of your family against the miners of Tonypandy'.[11]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonypandy_Riot

[alisoncc 379]

Whilst I had rels who had been miners, nevertheless I concur with everything written here, copied from Wiki.

Out of office and politically in the wilderness during the 1930s, Churchill took the lead in warning about Nazi Germany and in campaigning for rearmament. On 10 May 1940, Churchill became Prime Minister. His steadfast refusal to consider defeat, surrender, or a compromise peace helped inspire British resistance, especially during the difficult early days of the War when Britain stood alone among European countries in its active opposition to Adolf Hitler.

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. Named the Greatest Briton of all time in a 2002 poll, Churchill is widely regarded as being among the most influential people in British history, consistently ranking well in opinion polls of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom.

And I post this in his honour.

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

The French resisitance WERE named as terrorists, ask any WW2 German vet....So were the Belgians, Dutch etc, big difference between those people was they attacked the Germans, not innocent people who disagreed with them...

Can't recall Winnies funeral, I know I never watched it, Most in the coal mining industry were out whooping it up, remember to the working classes, Winnie was the enemy! "I'll see the miners eat grass" And it was never forgotten!!

It was said that Harold Wilson could have done the wartime Prime Ministers job just as well, but he was a little too young at the time...So really we will never know being as he wasn't given the task..

[... 1,411]

Interesting the brits that claim to be patriotic but will always call their country and its people in the name of a good cause Churchill was a leader who was advised by the real heros figure heads are what they are but to me the real heros are Mr and Mrs joe soap badly paid ill equipped called by all and sundry yet still die across the world in spite of being british most struggle for their own cause the british fight for everyones weather they like it or not and at the end of it they will be called again and sometimes by their own people . but perhaps thats true of every nation i dont know.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

Like it or not, every army needs a leader. A case of heroes led by a hero.

As for eating grass? We've always ate grass and still do. In the form of bread. Flour is made from cereal crops a form of grass. And latterly the trendy food called pasta. Made from a form of grass.

Is milk and butter very indirectly made from grass? That's all cows eat and the milk and butter I consume comes from cows. Makes you think.

[... 1,411]

I Have respect for winston but put things into perspective was he not chuffing on massive cigars when soldiers couldent get a fag was he not very overweight at a time when at home people were rationed and abroad our soldiers were mal nourished or starving 'after the war people wanted to forget the horrors winston got a lot of accolade the facts are he was one of the privelidged few so i make no appology to put him well down my list of people to respect however as i said i did respect him.

[... 1,411]

Tomlinson makes valid points without being disrespectful