24th January, 1965

56 years ago today, Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, died at the age on 90. He died in the early hours at his London home and his death was announced at 08.35. His funeral was at St Paul’s Cathedral six days later, he remains one of only a handful of Britons outside the royal family to have received a full state funeral.

Immediately after being informed of his death H.M. The Queen sent a letter of condolence to Churchill’s widow.

 “The whole world is the poorer by the loss of his many-sided genius while the survival of this country and the sister nations of the Commonwealth, in the face of the greatest danger that has ever threatened them, will be a perpetual memorial to his leadership, his vision and indomitable courage.”

In 2002 he easily won a poll for the Greatest Ever Briton. He is also a symbol of continuity. He was our Queen’s first Prime Minister when she ascended the Throne in 1952. When he first became a Member of Parliament in 1900 the Queen was Victoria. She became Queen in 1837. Think of it, three overlapping careers taking us back to 1837.

Churchill’s leadership during the Second World War has made him not only an enduring symbol of Britain, and of her stubborn resistance to National Socialist tyranny, but of the fight for Freedom everywhere. His close cooperation with America during the war, and the fact that he was a British son of an American mother, also makes him a potent symbol of Anglo-American friendship.

It is then perhaps more disappointing than surprising that his image has been once again deliberately removed from the White House. I for one expected nothing better from Biden. Removing Churchill is not just a message to the UK, it is a message to the USA and the world, and it says much, much more about Biden and his crew than it says about Churchill.