Demise of the Crown: #26: St George's Services

As the official public record since 1665, The Gazette has been recording the deaths of monarchs for over three centuries. As part of our ‘Demise of the Crown’ series, historian Russell Malloch looks through the archives at The Gazette’s reporting of demise events during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, including the funeral of Winston Churchill.

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St George’s Chapel

St George’s Chapel was the scene of several royal funerals, other than those for sovereigns and their consorts, and Windsor was also used for ceremonies to mark the demise of some of the non-royal knights of the Garter, whose heraldic plates remained in the stalls of the quire at Windsor.

The standard procedure during the first half of Elizabeth II’s reign, maintained the Rule of 1928, and so resulted in the funeral service being performed in St George’s, followed by burial at Frogmore. This happened with, for example, the passing of Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Marie Louise, in 1956; Marina, Duchess of Kent in 1968; Prince William of Gloucester in 1972; and his father Henry, Duke of Gloucester in 1974.

The programme for the Duke of Gloucester’s funeral in 1974 recalled the arrangements from 1942 for the Duke of Connaught, his predecessor as great master of the Order of the Bath, as his pall bearers were senior officers from the armed forces, and included two field-marshals, two marshals of the Royal Air Force, an admiral and an admiral of the fleet. Prince Henry had been gazetted on several occasions in connection with his forces appointments, as he became a field-marshal in 1955, and a marshal of the RAF three years later.

As regards St George’s Chapel being made available to mark the passing of a non-royal knight of the Garter, there was an armed forces connection when the quire was first used for that purpose. The ritual in 1963 related to Field-Marshal the Viscount Alanbrooke, who was the chief of the Imperial General Staff during the second world war, and had been a member of the order since 1946 (Gazette issue 37807). The Queen was represented on that occasion by Field-Marshal the Earl Alexander of Tunis, another military knight of the Garter.

The Alanbrooke precedent saw funerals being held in St George’s Chapel for other non-royal companions, in a setting that had generally been reserved for the royal family. Windsor witnessed gatherings after the departure of several field-marshals who were members of the Garter. The Queen was represented on each of these occasions, and nominated Field-Marshal Sir Gerald Templer to attend the service for the Earl Alexander of Tunis in 1969; the lord chamberlain (Lord Cobbold) to observe the passing of the Viscount Slim in 1970; the Duke of Edinburgh to witness the obsequies for the Viscount Montgomery of Alamein in 1976; and the Prince of Wales to attend the funeral of Sir Gerald Templer in 1979.

St George’s Chapel was also the venue for memorial and thanksgiving services, as opposed to the funeral ritual, of some members of the royal family, including the Marquess of Carisbrooke (formerly Prince Alexander of Battenberg). He died in 1960, by which time he was the last surviving grandson of Queen Victoria, and was buried at Whippingham beside his mother and father, Princess Beatrice and Prince Henry of Battenberg.

The practice of court mourning was still observed by the time that Lord Carisbrooke expired, but there was no announcement of the kind of black dress regulations that were gazetted after his father’s death in 1896 (Gazette issue 26702). On the day of Carisbrooke’s death, the Court Circular explained that the Queen had received the news with great sorrow, and the following personal notice was sent to members of the royal family:

“The lord chamberlain is authorised to announce that no commands for court mourning will be issued by the Queen for the Marquess of Carisbrooke. Her Majesty will observe family mourning for one week from to-day until and including Monday, the 29^th February, as will also the members of Her Majesty’s household when in attendance upon the Queen.”

Winston Churchill

The funeral of the most celebrated of the post-war knights of the Garter did not take place at Windsor, even although his banner had hung in St George’s Chapel since the early 1950s, and instead St Paul’s Cathedral in London was chosen for the state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill, who died on 24 January 1965.

On the following day, the prime minister, Harold Wilson, explained to the House of Commons that he had a message from the Queen, which the speaker read:

“I know that it will be the wish of all my people that the loss which we have sustained by the death of the Right Honourable Sir Winston Churchill, K.G., should be met in the most fitting manner and that they should have an opportunity of expressing their sorrow at the loss and their veneration of the memory of that outstanding man who in war and peace served his country unfailingly for more than fifty years and in the hours of our greatest danger was the inspiring leader who strengthened and supported us all. Confident that I can rely upon the support of my faithful Commons and upon their liberality in making suitable provision for the proper discharge of our debt of gratitude and tribute of national sorrow, I have directed that Sir Winston's body shall lie in state in Westminster Hall and that thereafter the Funeral Service shall be held in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul. Elizabeth R.”

The Commons assured the Queen “of our cordial aid and concurrence in these measures for expressing the affection and admiration in which the memory of this great man is held by this House and all Her Majesty's faithful subjects”.

The funeral invitation process was unusual, as the document had been prepared in advance of Churchill’s demise, and did not show either his name, or the date of the service. The invitation that was issued by the earl marshal to the Queen’s cousin and his wife read:

“State Funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral.

The earl marshal has it in command from the Queen to invite the Honourable Gerald and Mrs Lascelles to be present at the Cathedral Church of St Paul in London on the occasion of the state funeral shortly to be held there. A reply is requested on the form attached hereto, and in the attached envelope, at the earliest possible moment.”

The admission tickets were undated, and did not name the deceased. Even so, the state funeral was exceptional, in terms of its scale and content. The ceremonial was not published in The Gazette, as it had been for three of Churchill’s predecessors as prime minister, William Pitt in 1806, the Duke of Wellington in 1852, and William Gladstone in 1898.

The programme began with a lying in state in Westminster Hall, followed by a gun carriage procession through London to the cathedral, and a service attended by the Queen and several foreign heads of state. The carriage was drawn by a naval crew of more than 100 men, with banners of the Cinque Ports (Gazette issue 35326), and Churchill’s coat of arms being carried in the cavalcade, along with military bands, members of the armed forces, and with the officers of arms. Sir Winston’s Garter insignia was placed on the coffin, and four officers carried cushions bearing his other British and foreign insignia and medals.

The pall bearers joined the procession after it reached the cathedral and included eight knights of the Garter. The casket was accompanied by Lords Alexander of Tunis, Ismay, Mountbatten of Burma, Portal of Hungerford and Slim, and Sir Gerald Templer, from the armed services, along with the statesmen Clement Attlee, Anthony Eden, and Harold Macmillan; prime minister Robert Menzies of Australia, and two senior civil servants who served with Churchill during the war, Lords Bridges and Normanbrook.

Honours were awarded to the bearer party, but as this was not a royal occasion the Victorian Order and its medal were deemed to be inappropriate. There was no general distribution of medals to the naval gun crew, as there had been after each death of the sovereign since 1901, and instead The Gazette reported an MBE for Lieutenant Anthony Mather, the officer in charge of the party, and the British Empire Medal (BEM) for the nine men of the Grenadier Guards who bore Churchill’s remains (Gazette issue 43576). Lieutenant Mather joined the Victorian Order in 1997, after serving as secretary of the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, while Lance-Sergeant Perkins of the bearer party received the Royal Victorian Medal in 2004 for services as a Yeoman of the Guard.

Churchill’s remains were taken by barge up the River Thames and laid to rest in the graveyard of St Martin’s Church at Bladon, near Blenheim Palace, his family’s stately home in Oxfordshire.

Commemorative coins

Sir Winston’s death was marked in an unprecedented way, as The Gazette noted the proclamation of August 1965 that authorised the Royal Mint to strike a commemorative coin, which showed his effigy and the word “Churchill” (Gazette issue 43731).

No demise of the crown had inspired the issue of coins in the United Kingdom, but the Churchill precedent was repeated in proclamations that were made to mark the passing of three royal consorts: Diana, Princess of Wales; Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother; and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The first commemorative coin to be approved for a demise of the crown was struck after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.

Similar steps were taken to record Churchill’s death by printing stamps, and in July 1965 the Post Office issued two stamps to celebrate Sir Winston’s life. This process was not the subject of any regulations that were published in The Gazette, and the measure was repeated to commemorate some royal lives.

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Succession to the Crown: From Charles II to Charles III

Succession to the Crown is essential reading for anyone with a keen interest in the British royal family and provides an excellent and trusted source of information for historians, researchers and academics alike. The book takes you on a journey exploring the coronations, honours and emblems of the British monarchy, from the demise of King Charles II in 1685, through to the accession of King Charles III, as recorded in The London Gazette.

Historian Russell Malloch tells the story of the Crown through trusted, factual information found in the UK's official public record. Learn about the traditions and ceremony engrained in successions right up to the demise of Queen Elizabeth II and the resulting proclamation and accession of King Charles III.

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About the author

Russell Malloch is a member of the Orders and Medals Research Society and an authority on British honours. He authored Succession to the Crown: From Charles II to Charles III, which explores the coronations, honours and emblems of the British monarchy.

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Publication date

7 April 2025

Any opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and the author alone, and does not necessarily represent that of The Gazette.