Excellent article. The quotes from Sir Martin Gilbert were spot-on. I was barely 10 years old, when Winston Churchill died. I remember watching the excellent series *The Gallant Years *(with actor Richard Burton reading Churchill's words)with my parents, so I was aware that Churchill was someone really important. Even back then, I was interested in how he led Britain in WW2.
And I knew he was half-American, on his mother's side. What I didn't know *then *was: his maternal grandfather was born about an hour south of where I lived, in Upstate New York! BTW: the author got the Funeral site *wrong.* It wasn't at *Westminster Abbey. It was St Paul's Cathedral!* The singing of *The Battle Hymn of the Republic *at the Service still gives me goosebumps. (Ms.) Pat Finnegan On Saturday, January 24, 2015 at 1:36:14 PM UTC-5, Richard M. Langworth wrote: > > Anyone reading this knows where they were on 9/11/01. A diminishing number > remember where they were on 1/30/65—the day we said farewell to Winston > Churchill. > > For me it was a life-changing experience. Suddenly, unforgettably, on my > flickering, black and white TV screen in Staten Island, N.Y., the huge void > of England’s grandest cathedral filled with *The Battle Hymn of the > Republic*. He was, we were reminded, half-American, an honorary citizen > by Act of Congress. > > That day was the start of my 50-year career in search of Churchill—of what > his greatest biographer, Sir Martin Gilbert, described as “labouring in the > vineyard.” > > After the funeral I picked up *The Gathering Storm, *the first volume of > his World War II memoirs. I was snared by what Robert Pilpel called his > “roast beef and pewter phrases.” It’s biased, as Churchill admitted—“This > is not history; this is my case.” But it is ordered so as to put you at his > side for the “great climacterics” that made us what we are today. > > Read more: > http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/reflections-churchill-s-funeral_824348.html > > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ChurchillChat" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to churchillchat+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to churchillchat@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/churchillchat. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
