Cheering crowds for Churchill visit 75 years ago

That political visit 75 years ago must rank as among the most notable in Wolverhampton's history with huge crowds welcoming Winston Churchill, the wartime leader.

The date was Saturday, July 23, 1949, and Churchill had chosen the town, as it was then, for what we would today call a keynote speech on party policy at a rally of Midlands Conservatives.

Churchill had flown in to Wolverhampton Municipal Airport at Pendeford from Biggin Hill in his own aircraft, a silver de Havilland Dove called Columba, which touched down 10 minutes late and taxied to the front of the aerodrome clubhouse. With a newly-lit cigar in his mouth, he waved from inside the aircraft.

As he drove in an open car to the town hall he stood up in the back and took off his hat to wave to the large crowds lining the route. At the top of the town hall steps he stopped to wave to the crowd and give them a V-sign – that is, as in V for victory.

During a 15-minute visit to the town hall he signed the distinguished visitors book and was presented by the mayor with an autographed copy of "The Book of the Century," published to mark the borough's centenary.

The crowds grew denser in North Street, and when he left to drive to the Victoria Hotel by way of North Street, Queen Square, and Lichfield Street for lunch with members of his secretariat, a tremendous cheer went up.