January 24
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Sir Winston Churchill has died at the age of 90 with his wife Lady Clementine Churchill and other members of the family at his bedside. He suffered a stroke 15 days ago and gradually slipped into a deep sleep from which he never awakened. Sir Winston died in his London home at Hyde Park Gate. Earlier in his illness, there had been crowds anxiously waiting for news at the top of the quiet Kensington cul-de-sac - but when the announcement finally came there was only a handful of journalists in the street. News of his death was announced on the BBC shortly after 0800 GMT. Within half-an-hour, crowds began to gather near his home to payhomageto Britain's greatest wartime leader. When Sir Winston fell ill, he was visited by one of the country's leading neurologists, Lord Brain, who advised on his treatment. Since then, regular medical bulletins have been issued by Sir Winston's own doctor, Lord Moran. Sir Winston has spent the past few days lying in the downstairs room he converted to a bedroom after a fall four years ago in which he injured his back. Members of the family were summoned to his bedside at 0700 GMT. Lady Churchill and the couple's eldest surviving daughter, Mary Soames, have been with him throughout his illness. Their son, Randolph Churchill was seen arriving with his son, Winston. Soon after, Sir Winston's actress daughter, Lady Sarah Audley, looking pale and drawn, arrived with her daughter, Celia Sandys. Many television and radio programmes have been cancelled or re-scheduled to make way for tributes to Sir Winston. Sir Winston will lie in state in Westminster Hall - an honour not accorded any English statesman since Gladstone in 1898. His body will remain there for three days, before the funeral at St Paul's cathedral on Saturday. All 106 passengers and 11 crew were killed on the aircraft as it prepared to land at Geneva airport in Switzerland. Most of the dead were Indian nationals, 46 of whom were sailors. Six were British. Rescue teams found wreckage scattered on the south-west side of the mountain, about 1,400ft (427 metres) below the summit. Gerard Devoussoux, a mountain guide who was one of the first to arrive at the disaster scene, said: "Another 15 metres (50ft) and the plane would have missed the rock. It made a huge crater in the mountain. "Everything was completely pulverised. Nothing was identifiable except for a few letters and packets." French authorities radioed back the news that there was virtually no hope of survivors shortly after landing in the area. The search was eventually called off after bad weather and poor visibility hampered rescue efforts. Relatives of the passengers involved in the disaster were in tears after airport officials broke the news of the crash. Robert Bruce, from Tooting, who was waiting for his parents to arrive, said: "I am so choked I cannot even cry. I will just go home and collapse. "As far as I am concerned my world has come to an end." The cause of the crash is not yet known and it is expected to take several days before all of the bodies are recovered. The plane was a few minutes behind schedule as it was preparing to make its descent. But the captain of the Air India Boeing 707, who was one of the airline's most experienced pilots, had radioed the control tower a few minutes earlier to report that his instruments were working fine and the aircraft was flying at 19,000ft (5,791 metres) - at least 3,000ft (514 metres) higher than the Mont Blanc summit. Shortly after, the plane crashed into the mountain. Sixteen years ago an Air India Constellation crashed near the same spot, killing 48 passengers. |
