“Operation Hope Not”
The State Funeral of Sir Winston Churchill

Through April 2, 2023

Winston Churchill died, at age 90, on January 24, 1965, putting into motion a meticulous plan for an historic State Funeral. The plan, which had been started more than a decade earlier, was code-named “Operation Hope Not” and was decreed by Queen Elizabeth II to be “on a scale befitting his position in history.”

This exhibition examines Sir Winston’s State Funeral, the largest in British history at the time, and the private internment for family at the Church at Bladon in Oxfordshire. It includes a series of rarely exhibited oil paintings by Churchill’s nephew, John Spencer-Churchill, and archival material from the Museum’s holdings along with material on loan from the Collection of Philip and Susan Larson.

 

The exhibition is made possible by the Anson Cutts Endowment for America’s National Churchill Museum.

Programming support for the exhibition is made possible by the Kostich Endowment for America’s National Churchill Museum.

 

Image: John Spencer-Churchill (British, 1909-1992) Start of the State Funeral, Oil on Canvas. Gift of Hallmark. (detail).