Winston Churchill Statue, Westerham, Kent. UK - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

Chartwell is the home of Winston Churchill. But he also has a strong affiliation with Westerham. The Bronze Statue of Winston Churchill depicted in a seated position, is slightly larger than real life stands on a stone plinth. This plinth is around 4 feet high and made to look like a sculptured stone. This could be a native stone from Yougslavia, but i am unable to confirm its consturction. This was a Donation in memory of Winston Churchill from the Yugolslav nation. A small plaque on the rear of the plinth reads

"The plinth was presented by Marshall Tito and the people of Yugoslavia as a symbol of Yugoslav soil, in homage to Sir Winston Churchill's leadership in the war. July 23, 1969"

The following information was taken from Wikipedia.

Churchill was born on 30 November 1874, two months premature, in a bedroom in Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, into the aristocratic family of the Dukes of Marlborough, a branch of the noble Spencer family.

After Churchill left Harrow in 1893, he applied to attend the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. He tried three times before passing the entrance exam; he applied for cavalry rather than infantry because the grade requirement was lower and did not require him to learn mathematics, which he disliked. He graduated eighth out of a class of 150 in December 1894.

In October 1911, Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. While serving in this position, he put strong emphasis on modernisation and was also in favour of using aeroplanes in combat.

Churchill stood for the seat of Oldham at the 1900 general election. After winning the seat, he went on a speaking tour throughout Britain and the United States, raising £10,000 for himself (about £920,000 today). In Parliament, he became associated with a faction of the Conservative Party led by Lord Hugh Cecil.

After the outbreak of the Second World War on 3 September 1939, the day Britain declared war on Germany, Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty and a member of the War Cabinet, as he had been during the first part of the First World War. When they were informed, the Board of the Admiralty sent a signal to the Fleet: "Winston is back".

At the height of the Battle of Britain, his bracing survey of the situation included the memorable line "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few", which engendered the enduring nickname The Few for the RAF fighter pilots who won it. He first spoke these famous words upon his exit from No. 11 Group's underground bunker at RAF Uxbridge, now known as the Battle of Britain Bunker on 16 August 1940. One of his most memorable war speeches came on 10 November 1942 at the Lord Mayor's Luncheon at Mansion House in London, in response to the Allied victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein. Churchill stated:

This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Churchill's health was fragile, as shown by a mild heart attack he suffered in December 1941 at the White House and also in December 1943 when he contracted pneumonia. Despite this, he travelled over 100,000 miles (160,000 km) throughout the war to meet other national leaders. For security, he usually travelled using the alias Colonel Warden.

Churchill had suffered a mild stroke while on holiday in the south of France in the summer of 1949. In June 1953, when he was 78, Churchill suffered a more severe stroke at 10 Downing Street. News of this was kept from the public and from Parliament, who were told that Churchill was suffering from exhaustion. He went to his country home, Chartwell, to recuperate from the effects of the stroke which had affected his speech and ability to walk.

Churchill's funeral was the largest state funeral in world history up to that point in time, with representatives from 112 nations; only China did not send an emissary. Only Ireland did not broadcast the service live on television in Europe, where 350 million people watched, including 25 million in Britain. By decree of the Queen, his body lay in state in Westminster Hall for three days and a state funeral service was held at St Paul's Cathedral on 30 January 1965. One of the largest assemblages of statesmen in the world was gathered for the service. Unusually, the Queen attended the funeral. As Churchill's lead-lined coffin passed up the River Thames from Tower Pier to Festival Pier on the MV Havengore, dockers lowered their crane jibs in a salute.

The Royal Artillery fired the 19-gun salute due a head of government, and the RAF staged a fly-by of sixteen English Electric Lightning fighters. The coffin was then taken the short distance to Waterloo station where it was loaded onto a specially prepared and painted carriage as part of the funeral train for its rail journey to Handborough, seven miles north-west of Oxford.
Sir Winston Churchill's funeral train passing Clapham Junction

The funeral train of Pullman coaches carrying his family mourners was hauled by Battle of Britain class steam locomotive No. 34051 Winston Churchill. In the fields along the route, and at the stations through which the train passed, thousands stood in silence to pay their last respects. At Churchill's request, he was buried in the family plot at St Martin's Church, Bladon, near Woodstock, not far from his birthplace at Blenheim Palace. Churchill's funeral van—Southern Railway van S2464S—is now part of a preservation project with the Swanage Railway, having been repatriated to the UK in 2007 from the US, to where it had been exported in 1965.

Later in 1965 a memorial to Churchill, cut by the engraver Reynolds Stone, was placed in Westminster Abbey.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   02/06/2015 Team R2C2 visited it 09/14/2014 The_Senior_Crabbes visited it

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