List of awards and honours received by Winston Churchill


received numerous honours and awards throughout his career as a British Army officer, statesman and author.
Perhaps the highest of these was the state funeral of Winston Churchill|state funeral] held at St Paul's Cathedral, after his body had lain in state for three days in Westminster Hall, an honour rarely granted to anyone other than a British monarch. Queen Elizabeth II also broke protocol by giving precedence to a subject, arriving at the cathedral ahead of Churchill's coffin. The funeral also saw one of the largest assemblages of statesmen in the world.
Throughout his life, Churchill also accumulated other honours and awards. He was awarded 37 other orders and medals between 1895 and 1964. Of the orders, decorations and medals Churchill received, 20 were awarded by the United Kingdom, three by France, two each by Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg and Spain, and one each by the Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Libya, Nepal, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United States. Ten were awarded for active service as a British Army officer in Cuba, India, Egypt, South Africa, the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium. The greater number of awards were given in recognition of his service as a minister of the British government.

Coat of arms

Churchill was a not a peer, and held no title of nobility. As a male-line grandson of the 7th Duke of Marlborough, he bore the quartered coat of arms of the Spencer and Churchill families, as the Spencer-Churchills had done since the time of Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough">Spencer family">Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough. Paul Courtenay observed that "It would be normal in circumstances for the paternal arms to take precedence over the maternal, but because the Marlborough dukedom was senior to the Sunderland earldom, the procedure was reversed in this case." In 1817, an augmentation of honour was granted commemorating the victory at Blenheim by the 1st Duke of Marlborough.
As Churchill's father, Randolph Churchill">Randolph Churchill">Randolph Churchill, was the second surviving son of the 7th Duke of Marlborough, his arms should have been differenced, according to strict heraldic rules, with a mark of cadency. Traditionally, this would have been a heraldic crescent, and those differenced arms would have been inherited by Winston Churchill. However, such differenced arms do not appear to have been adopted by Lord Randolph or Winston.
Although arms are supposed to differentiate between bearers, there does not seem to have been any confusion between Churchill's armorial achievement as an untitled gentleman with many decorations, that of his brother as a plain gentleman, and that of his cousin, the Duke of Marlborough, which had the heraldic adornments of a duke. As a Knight Companion of the Garter, Churchill was also entitled to supporters in his achievement, but he never seems to have got around to applying for them.
The blazon of the arms is: quarterly 1st and 4th, Sable a lion rampant Argent on a canton of the second a cross Gules ; 2nd and 3rd, quarterly Argent and Gules, in the second and third quarters a fret Or, over all on a bend Sable three escallops of the first ; in chief, on an escutcheon Argent a cross Gules surmounted by an inescutcheon Azure charged with three fleurs-de-lys Or.
When Churchill became a Knight Companion of the Garter in 1953, his arms were encircled by the garter of the order. At the same time, the helms were made open, which is the mark of a knight. His motto was that of the Dukes of Marlborough, which is Fiel pero desdichado.

Honorary citizen

On 9 April 1963, United States President John F. Kennedy, acting under authorization granted by an Act of Congress, proclaimed Churchill the first honorary citizen of the United States. Churchill was physically incapable of attending the White House ceremony, so his son and grandson accepted the award for him.
He had previously been made an honorary citizen of the City of Paris on 12 November 1944 while visiting the city following the liberation. During the ceremony at the Hôtel de Ville, he received the Nazi flag that once flew from the Hôtel de Ville.

Proposed dukedoms

In 1945, King George VI offered to make Churchill the Duke of Dover – the first non-royal dukedom to be created since 1874 – and appoint him as a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter; however, Churchill turned down both. Since 1900, only members of the British royal family have been made dukes, so the offer was exceptional.
In 1955, after retiring as prime minister, Churchill was again offered elevation to the peerage in the rank of duke by Queen Elizabeth II. By custom, prime ministers retiring from the Commons of the United Kingdom|Commons] were usually offered earldoms, so a dukedom was a sign of special honour. One title that was considered was Duke of London, a city whose name had never been used in a peerage title. Churchill had represented divisions of three different counties in Parliament, and his home, Chartwell, was in a fourth, so the city in which he had spent most of his time during fifty years in politics was seen as a suitable choice. Churchill considered accepting the offer of a dukedom but eventually declined it; the lifestyle of a duke would have been expensive, and accepting any peerage might have cut short a renewed career in the Commons for his son Randolph, and in due course, might also have prevented one for his grandson Winston. At the time, there was no procedure for disclaiming a title; the procedure was first established by the Peerage Act 1963. Upon inheriting a peerage, either Randolph or Winston would have been unseated immediately from the House of Commons.

Political and government offices

Other honours

In 1913, Churchill was appointed an Elder Brother of Trinity House as result of his appointment as First Lord of the Admiralty.
In 1922, he was invested as a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour and in 1946 he became a Member of the Order of Merit. In 1953, he was invested as a Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter, the highest ranking British order of knighthood.
On 4 April 1939, Churchill was made an Honorary Air Commodore of No. 615 (County of Surrey) Squadron in the Auxiliary Air Force. In March 1943, the Air Council awarded Churchill honorary wings. He retained the appointment until 11 March 1957 when 615 Squadron was disbanded. He did, however, continue to hold the rank of Honorary Air Commodore. He frequently wore his uniform as an Air Commodore during World War II.
He was the Colonel of the 4th Queen's Own Hussars and, after its amalgamation, the first Colonel of the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars, which he held until his death in 1965. He was also Honorary Colonel of the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars.
From 1941 to his death, he was the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, a ceremonial office. In 1941, Canadian Governor General Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone|Alexander Cambridge, Earl of Athlone], swore him into the King's Privy Council for Canada. Although this allowed him to use the honorific title The Honourable and the post-nominal letters PC, both of these were trumped by his membership in the Imperial Privy Council, which allowed him the use of The Right Honourable. He was also appointed Grand Seigneur of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1956.
In 1945, he was mentioned by Halvdan Koht among seven candidates that were qualified for the Nobel Peace Prize. However, he did not explicitly nominate any of them. Actually, he nominated Cordell Hull.
On 4 July 1947, Churchill was admitted as an hereditary member of the Connecticut Society of the Cincinnati. He was presented with his insignia and diploma when he visited Washington, D.C., on January 16, 1952.
A prolific painter in oils, in 1948 he was elected as an Honorary Academician Extraordinary by the Royal Academy: a highly unusual honour for an amateur artist.
In 1949, Churchill held the office of Deputy Lieutenant of Kent.
In 1953, he was made a Knight Companion of the Garter, which gave him the title Sir Winston Churchill, KG. He also won the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending high human values."
He was Chancellor of the University of Bristol, as well as, in 1959, Father of the House, the MP with the longest continuous service.
In 1956, Churchill received the Karlspreis, an award by the German city of Aachen to those who most contribute to the European idea and European peace.
The Royal Society of Literature made Churchill one of the first five authors to be named a Companion of Literature in 1961.
Also in 1961, the Chartered Institute of Building named Churchill as an Honorary Fellow for his services and passion for the construction industry.
In 1964, Civitan International presented Churchill with its first World Citizenship Award for service to the world community.
Churchill was also appointed a Kentucky Colonel.
When Churchill was 88, he was asked by the Duke of Edinburgh how he would like to be remembered. He replied with a scholarship like the Rhodes scholarship but for the wider masses. After his death, the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was established in the United Kingdom and Australia. A Churchill Trust Memorial Day was held in Australia, raising $4.3 million. Since that time, the Churchill Trust in Australia has supported over 3,000 scholarship recipients in a diverse variety of fields, where merit, either on the basis of past experience or potential, and the propensity to contribute to the community, have been the only criteria.
One of the four sets of false teeth that Winston Churchill wore his whole life to keep his unique way of speaking is now in the Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons in England.

Namesakes

Ships, trains and tanks

Two warships, from the UK and US have been named HMS Churchill: the destroyer and the submarine .
On 10 March 2001, the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer was commissioned into the United States Navy. The launch and christening of the ship two years earlier had been co-sponsored by Churchill's daughter, Lady Soames.
In addition, the Danish DFDS line named a car ferry Winston Churchill, and the Corporation of Trinity House named one of their lighthouse tenders similarly. A sail training ship was named Sir Winston Churchill.
In September 1947, the Southern Railway named a Battle of Britain class steam locomotive, Battle of Britain class 21C151 Winston Churchill|No. 21C151], after him. Churchill was offered the opportunity to perform the naming ceremony, but he declined. Later, the locomotive was used to pull his funeral train, and it is now kept in York's National Railway Museum.
The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway locomotive No. 9, Winston Churchill.
The Churchill tank, or Infantry Tank Mk IV; was a British Second World War tank named after Churchill, who was Prime Minister at the time of its design.

Parks and geographic features

The Winston Churchill Range in the Canadian Rockies was named in his honour. Also in Canada, Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park and Churchill Lake in Saskatchewan were named after him, and Churchill Falls on the Churchill River in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Winston Churchill Square is a garden and sitting area in Manhattan, New York City.
Churchill Park, Glendowie, New Zealand was created in 1945 and is anmed after him.
The Churchill National Park in Australia, which was established on 12 February 1941 as the Dandenong National Park, was renamed in 1944 in his honour. Churchill Island and Churchill Island Marine National Park in Victoria, Australia were also named after him.
The Churchill Park located in central Copenhagen, Denmark, is named after Churchill in commemoration of Churchill and the British help to Denmark in the liberation of Denmark during World War II.

Roads

Schools

Many schools have been named after him.
Ten schools in Canada are named in his honour: one each in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Hamilton, Kingston, St. Catharines, Lethbridge, Calgary, Toronto and Ottawa also in London,Ont. Churchill Auditorium at the Technion is named after him.
At least five American high schools carry his name; these are located in Potomac, Maryland; Livonia, Michigan; Eugene, Oregon; East Brunswick, New Jersey and San Antonio, Texas.

Buildings, public squares and infrastructure

Other objects

He appeared on the 1965 crown, the first commoner to be placed on a British coin. He made another appearance on a crown issued in 2010 to honour the 70th anniversary of his Premiership.
Pol Roger's prestige cuvée Champagne, Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill, is named after him. The first vintage, 1975, was launched in 1984 at Blenheim Palace. The name was accepted by his heirs as Churchill was a faithful customer of Pol Roger. Following Churchill's death in 1965, Pol Roger added a black border to the label on bottles shipped to the UK as a sign of mourning. This was not lifted until 1990.
The Julieta, a size of cigar, is also commonly known as a Churchill.
Churchill's Toyshop.

Polls

Churchill has been included in numerous polls, mostly connected with greatness. Time named him its Man of the Year for 1940, and "Man of the Half-Century" in 1949. A BBC survey, of January 2000, saw Churchill voted the greatest British prime minister of the 20th century. In 2002, BBC TV viewers and web site users voted him the greatest Briton of all time in a ten-part series called Great Britons, a poll attracting almost two million votes.

Statues

Many statues have been created in likeness and in honour of Churchill. Numerous buildings and squares have also been named in his honour. The most prominent example of a statue of Churchill is the official statue commissioned by the government and created by Ivor Roberts-Jones which now stands in Parliament Square. It was unveiled by Churchill's widow, Lady Churchill, on 1 November 1973, and was Grade II listed in 2008. In June 2020 when anti-racism protests occurred in the United Kingdom during the George Floyd protests, the statue of Sir Winston Churchill located in Parliament Square was vandalised when a protester painted graffiti on the statue reading “was a racist” underneath Churchill’s name which was crossed out by the same vandal who wrote the sentence. A couple of days after this event took place the statue was cleaned and it did not sustain any permanent damage.
Another Roberts-Jones statue of Churchill displaying the V sign is prominently placed in New Orleans.
File:WinstonChurchillHalfaxNovaScotia.JPG|thumb|right|upright|Statue in Halifax, Nova Scotia by Oscar Nemon
In addition several other statues have also been made, including a bronze bust of Winston Churchill by Jacob Epstein, several statues by David McFall at Woodford, William McVey outside the British embassy in Washington, D.C., Franta Belsky at Fulton, Missouri, at least three from Oscar Nemon: one on the front lawn of the Halifax Public Library branch on Spring Garden Road, Halifax, Nova Scotia ; one in the British House of Commons ; a bust of his head along with that of Franklin Roosevelt commemorating the Quebec Conference, 1943 next to Port St. Louis in Quebec City ; and one in Nathan Phillips Square outside of Toronto City Hall, and Jean Cardot beside the Petit Palais in Paris. A statue of Churchill and Roosevelt, sculpted by Lawrence Holofcener is located in New Bond Street, London. There is an oversized bust of Churchill at the Roosevelt National Historic Site">Franklin D. Roosevelt">Roosevelt National Historic Site in Hyde Park, New York. It is paired with a similar bust of President Roosevelt.
After Churchill was declared the greatest Briton of all time in the BBC poll and television series Great Britons, a statue was erected in his honour and now stands at the BBC television studios. Churchill is also memorialised by many statues and a public square in New York, in recognition of his life, and also because his mother was from New York. His maternal family is also memorialised in streets, parks, and neighbourhoods throughout the city.
In 2012, a statue of Churchill was erected in Jerusalem in recognition of his "staunch and unwavering support of the Jewish cause and their desire for a homeland".

Orders, decorations and medals

This is a list of the orders, decorations, and medals received by Winston Churchill, arranged in order of precedence.

British orders and medals

Foreign honours

Orders

Decorations

Service medals

Military ranks and titles

Academic

Honorary degrees

Churchill received many honorary doctorates from British universities as well other universities in the world, including:

Other distinctions

Membership in lineage societies

Freedom of the City

2 April 1941: Oldham12 October 1942: Edinburgh30 June 1943: London16 November 1944: Paris1945: Wanstead and Woodford4 October 1946: Blackpool1946: Poole1946: Aberdeen1946: Westminster31 October 1946: Birmingham1947: Manchester1947: Ayr1947: Darlington3 October 1947: Brighton22 April 1948: Eastbourne6 July 1948: Aldershot16 July 1948: Cardiff27 May 1948: Perth1949: Kensington20 May 1950: Worcester13 July 1950: Bath12 December 1950: Portsmouth 2 March 1951: Swindon16 April 1951: Sheffield15 August 1951: Deal1951: Aberystwyth1951: Dover1953: Stirling17 January 1953: Kingston15 December 1950: Portsmouth30 September 1955: Harrow16 December 1955: Derry16 December 1955: Belfast3 March 1956: Roquebrune-Cap-Martin23 July 1957: Douglas27 November 1957: Margate28 October 1958: Leeds10 October 1964: Estcourt
Churchill received a worldwide total of 42 Freedoms of Cities and Towns in his lifetime, a record for a lifelong British citizen.