Ahead of the 50th anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral, Hilperton man Kenneth Warr has recalled the major role he played in covering the occasion, working for news agency United Press International.

The former Prime Minis-ter, widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, died on January 24, 1965, and his funeral was the largest state funeral in world history at the time when it took place on January 30.

Mr Warr, who lives in Trowbridge Road, was working for United Press International in London at the time, after starting in 1955 as a script writer and working his way up to the position of European managing editor.

He was given the job of planning all the new agency’s coverage of the funeral, which was attended by representatives from 112 nations, before the footage was then sent out worldwide.

Mr Warr, 89, said: “We knew he was going to die for several days, so we had cameramen outside his home at Hyde Park Gate 24 hours a day waiting for the announcement.

“Once we got the announcement, we were called to Central Hall in Westminster the next day by the Duke of Norfolk, who was organising the funeral. He told us what was going to happen and then said to organise our own coverage.

“Knowing what we were faced with, I estimated that we needed 19 cameramen to cover the funeral. As soon as the film came out of the camera, we had despatch riders ready to take it to be processed at our headquarters.

“On the day the crowds were huge, which made it difficult for our despatch riders to get to the cameramen.

“What they ended up doing was chaining their bikes to the nearest Tube to the office and taking the Tube to where the cameramen would be.”

After the footage was recorded, Mr Warr said it had to be viewed, edited and scripted, before being sent out, with some countries getting film in time for their evening news bulletins.

Mr Warr added: “It was a very exciting period and very full on.

“It was our job to cover events all over the world, but that was the largest local event I covered and our clients were relying on the film that we sent.

“Churchill’s funeral was a tremendous occasion to cover, but it was very high pressure, especially when you realised that there were people all over the world waiting on our coverage.”