HALF a century ago the nation said farewell to former prime minister Winston Churchill as he was laid to rest after a state funeral. FLORA THOMPSON delves through The Argus archive at his links to Sussex...

SIR Winston Churchill’s grandson said the 50-year commemoration of the great man’s funeral was a fitting occasion.

Sir Nicholas Soames, MP for Mid Sussex, spoke after a service at the House of Commons at the end of January.

The former prime minister was remembered as a great leader and a great Briton.

Sir Nicholas told The Argus: “It was a very solemn and moving occasion on which to remember Sir Winston Churchill’s 64 years of uninterrupted service to the House of Commons. He would have been very proud to have been remembered in this way.”

The ceremony came 75 years since his ‘finest hour’ – leading the country’s fight against fascism in the Second World War.

Nine of his descendants travelled along the River Thames on a boat that carried the statesman’s coffin in 1965 as part of a flotilla, and an evening memorial took place in Westminster Abbey.

Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain has to draw on the same “courage and resolve” inspired by Churchill to battle the affronts to freedom faced today.

The event prompted memories of Churchill’s links to Sussex. A plaque sits on the wall of the YMCA on the junction of Brunswick Road and Lansdowne Road in Hove, which used to be a preparatory school where he was educated.

Brighton-born Patrick Kinna was Churchill’s private secretary in the Second World War.

In a typed letter of recommendation, Churchill said: “Patrick Kinna was a member of my personal staff on the Atlantic Charter Meeting in 1941. He was joined by secretarial staff of No. 10 Downing Street the same year, and has accompanied me on most of my tours abroad.

“I can confidently recommend him to anyone requiring a conscientious and reliable private secretary. He has performed all his duties most capably, and I wish him every success.”

He added a personal note which described him as a man of “exceptional diligence”.

On Wednesday, November 1, 1947, The Argus reported that the city was besieged by crowds when Churchill visited: “Crowds poured into Brighton today to see Winston Churchill, who is to receive the Freedom of the Borough.”

A cigar belonging to Churchill was found in a cupboard a year ago and sold for at least £1,500 at auction. It was inscribed to Philip Parnell, who lived in East Sussex.

In 1950, Mr Parnell was called to Chartwell, Churchill’s main home in Westerham, Kent, to help with carpentry jobs.

Churchill was impressed with Mr Parnell’s work and requested his attendance regularly – and he was even mentioned in Churchill’s biography. In the mid-1950s, Churchill gave him the cigar and a signed photograph.

When Mr Parnell died they were given to his daughter. And, after rediscovering them in a cupboard, she decided to auction them in Battle alongside a photograph, cigar box and signed book.

A collection of historical photographs discovered in a rubbish skip revealed a trip Churchill made to the city in his early political days.

A photo taken in 1910 shows him inspecting Brighton Police in the Royal Pavilion grounds. The pictures were put up for auction in Swindon, Wiltshire, in 2004.