NOSTALGIA: Standard and Polish airman’s tribute to Winston Churchill

“The greatest Briton ...” ran the headline about the former Prime Minister, who earlier that month had suffered a severe stroke.

“The leaders and ordinary citizens of the world pay tribute to the greatest man of our time, Sir Winston Churchill. This week every daily newspaper, and radio station has been giving reports on the condition of the British nation’s hero,” the piece began. “In Boston, as in the rest of Britain, his names is on everyone’s lips. Churchill is a synonym for greatness.”

To illustrate its piece, the Standard used a picture of Churchill presented to St Botolph’s School, Boston, drawn in pencil by a Polish Air Force officer in 1941.

“The background gives a pictorial illustration of how the world saw Churchill and how he will go down in the history of this nation as its most able leader,” The Standard continued. “The Union Jack has attached to its flagpole a fiery crucifix – the message is clear, simple, and true.

“The airman himself may have perished in the Battle of Britain fighting for his country on our shores. Neither the retired headmaster, Mr Fenwick Pearson, of Rosbery Avenue, nor the present headmaster, Mr Eric Hill, knows how the portrait came to be presented to the school.

“But this does not matter, it carries a message and tribute which will never be forgotten.”

* Churchill would die two days later on January 24, aged 90.