Saying goodbye

"Churchill, 90, Has Had A Cerebral Thrombosis" was the lead headline on the last edition of the Evening Press that night.

A medical bulletin, signed by the former Prime Minister's personal physician, 82-year-old Lord Moran, said that Sir Winston was "unwell" and was being cared for by nursing staff at his home in London's Hyde Park Gate. Another expert told the Press that a cerebral thrombosis meant a burst blood vessel supplying the brain.

For the next few days, the Evening Press kept readers regularly updated. The Queen had asked to be kept informed of Sir Winston's condition, a report in the following day's paper revealed. US President Johnson was praying for his "rapid and complete recovery".

But there was little expectation that even such a valiant ex-soldier as Churchill could win this battle. "At the age of 90 this condition must be considered a grave one," said a British Medical Association spokesman. "It may go on for a week or ten days."

By January 19, his condition had deteriorated to the point that the Archbishop of York, Dr Donald Coggan, was describing Sir Winston as "the greatest Englishman of our day, whose work is done and the end of whose life is near".

In a service at York Minster, he told the congregation: "We thank God for Sir Winston Churchill's great dynamic leadership of the nations in their hour of peril; for the genius in rallying those whose steps had slipped; for great powers of mind and will."

Meanwhile, a Harley Street doctor marvelled at Sir Winston's "magnificent vitality" which had ensured he was battling yet "where most other people would have succumbed".

And he fought on another few days before a bulletin brought the news the world was braced for. Sir Winston Churchill died at his home on January 24, 1965: 40 years ago today.

All over York, flags were flown at half mast. Shops in Stonegate responded to the mood of mourning: a building society replaced its advertising posters with a picture of the great man, and a milliner's on the opposite side of the street placed another portrait amid a special display of black and white hats.

Dr Coggan led the local tributes. "Statesman, historian, artist, he had the uncommon gift of overcoming the barriers of class, and even of race... We shall not soon see his like again."

MP for York, Charles Longbottom, said it was his "proudest thought that I had the privilege of representing this city in the same Parliament as Sir Winston.

"Surely our greatest tribute is to rededicate ourselves to those ideals and ambitions of peace and social justice which were the guiding light of Sir Winston's life."

The Evening Press leader column added more words of praise. "His mistakes are catalogued but his achievements need no advocate...

"He remained the greatest commoner of us all, and many will feel the poorer for his passing. He outlived his era, but not the deep affection of the whole English-speaking world, and others too."

Columnist John Blunt added his thoughts the following day.

"It is so very hard for us to explain our sense of loss to those who were mere children, babes in arms, or even not thought about when the lights went out all over Europe.

"To us Churchill was so much more than a man; he was the spirit of an age and that spirit still lurks inside us as we see his photographs in the special pages of our newspapers and hear his voice on radio and television."

He had sympathy for the "young ones who cannot quite fathom what all the fuss is about".

"I belong in part to the age of Sir Winston Churchill. For that, I am grateful.

"But if the young ones are not so grateful, if they can't understand what all the fuss is about, don't blame them. It is just that they are too young to know."

More than 320,000 people queued for hours to file past the coffin of Sir Winston and pay their last respects as it lay in state in Westminster Hall, London.

The funeral took place on Saturday, January 30, 1965. It was an astonishing occasion. More than 350 million people watched the televised service as the world paused in tribute to the man the Pope described as "the indefatigable champion of freedom".

York Lord Mayor William Bridge attended the St Paul's Cathedral service, at which PC John Londes-borough represented the city's police. In York, the Odeon and ABC cinemas cancelled Saturday morning shows for children. And many shops were also shut.

"The crowd in the city centre was half its normal Saturday size," the Evening Press reported. "It was a subdued, almost sombre morning, a biting cold emphasising the solemnity of the occasion."

It was genuinely the end of an era. "In the world which has emerged from the ashes of the 1939-45 war, Britain has not yet found her new role. Some say she never will; that there is no future, just a steady decline," observed the leader in the Evening Press on the day of the funeral.

"That is defeatist nonsense. The future of Britain can be as glorious as the past - if we are united, if we believe in ourselves, and if we have a goal worth striving for.

"No doubt there will be a Churchill memorial. But the best memorial, the one that he himself would have most desired, would have been a Britain proud, purposeful, pulsating with vigour, ready to bind all its energies to make this country the leader in the pursuit of world peace and prosperity.

"We owe it to him, we owe it to ourselves, that this should be no pipe dream but reality."

Updated: 09:43 Monday, January 24, 2005