The ‘lucky’ tall sailor given the ‘honour’ of holding Churchill’s gun carriage – ‘we trained intensively in the silent streets’

A sailor picked to take part in Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral has attributed his luck to being taller than six feet.

The funeral for the wartime Prime minister was held 60 years ago on January 30, 1965.

Serving two terms in office, Churchill led Britain during the darkest days of the Second World War and was granted a state funeral, which was rarely given to non-royalty.

Queen Elizabeth II ordered the goodbye in “scale befitting his position in history”.

John Maitland-Hudson, from North London then aged 20, was one of 138 men from the Royal Navy to take part in the spectacle. “I felt privileged as all my colleagues did,” said Maitland-Hudson.

“People came from all over the fleet to be in that funeral. It was deemed to be a great honour and terrific responsibility.”

Stationed at HMS Excellent in Portsmouth, sailors of six feet or taller were invited to train be part of the Royal Navy State Funeral Gun Carriage carrying the coffin. “I qualified for that,” he said.

One of 40 sailors, Maitland-Hudson trained “intensively” for three weeks to hold the drag ropes in the rear while 98 others were pulling from the front.

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The able seaman was positioned three rows back on the outside of the rear drag ropes.

He said: “We had some advanced warning that he was unwell and that he was going to die. We practised in the silent streets of London. We marched with the gun carriage to make sure we got the timing and the drills right.

Weighing 2.5 tonnes, the gun carriage was also used during Queen Victoria and, more recently, Queen Elizabeth II’s state funerals.

The planning for Churchill’s funeral, codenamed Operation Hope Not, began in 1958 when he suffered the first of many strokes, dying on January 24, 1965, aged 90.

After lying-in-state for three days, his body was transported along the River Thames to Waterloo Station and through the streets of London to St Paul’s Cathedral.

Maitland-Hudson said: “The streets were absolutely thronging with on-lookers…they climbed lampposts, and hung out of windows. I’m from a generation where people like Winston Churchill were enormously important.”

Despite the freezing winter temperatures, the sailors only wore their square rig uniform without great coat due to the ceremonial significance. Maitland-Hudson added: “One colleague, knuckle-white voided his bladder…because it was very cold, and his bladder was very full after a night on the beer”

Going downhill, he said “there was a great deal of pressure to be steady.”

Alongside the Royal Navy pulling the carriage and Grenadier Guards carrying the coffin, 2,500 soldiers and civilians took part in the occasion honouring the man often described as the greatest Briton. The funeral was watched around the world on television by 350 million people.

Now aged 80, Maitland-Hudson travelled the Mediterranean and far east during his 12-year career in the Royal Navy, finishing as a petty officer gunnery instructor inspired by his role during the funeral.

Maitland-Hudson added: “As a young sailor it gave me direction…I remember it fondly, a really special occasion. It was polished and worldclass.”