THE BOAT that carried the body of Winston Churchill on the day of his funeral will take to the river this Friday fifty years after he was laid to rest.
Tower Bridge will open in salute at 12:40 as Havengore leads a small procession of boats up river from HMS President, Wapping.
There will be plenty of vantage points on bridges and along the Thames path to watch as the former PLA hydrographic survey vessel carries members of the Churchill family in a poignant ceremony.
Bagpipes will be played on Tower Bridge and there will be a gun salute on HMS Belfast as the flotilla heads up river to a service by the Houses of Parliament where a wreath will be cast in to the Thames.
Havengore will pass under London Bridge at 12:53, Southwark Bridge at 12:55, the Millennium Bridge at 12:58 and Blackfriars Bridge at 13:00.
Winston Churchill was granted a state funeral which took place in the City at St Paul’s Cathedral and he was buried in Bladon, Oxfordshire.