Sir Winston Churchill’s funeral barge is ‘part of our heritage’ and should stay in the UK, says the man who brought the wartime leader’s hearse back into use

• Christopher Baker owns the Austin Princess which transported Churchill’s body

A funeral director whose brought Churchill’s hearse back into use has added to growing calls to save the wartime leader’s funeral barge for the nation.

Christopher Baker, founder of Bristol’s Memorial Woodlands, is the proud owner of the Austin Princess which collected Sir Winston’s body from the Havengore at the Festival Pier on London’s South Bank, before conveying it to Waterloo Station during his massive 1965 state funeral.

Mr Baker ploughed over £30,000 of his own cash into restoring the vehicle, which he bought sight unseen at Christie’s for a relatively modest sum some twenty years ago.

He told the Mail, that just like the hearse, the Havengore ‘belongs in the UK as a part of our heritage’.

‘I would hope that there is someone out there in this country who could take care of it, whether a museum or perhaps by paying its own keep by working on the Thames’, he said.

Christopher Baker, founder of Bristol’s Memorial Woodlands, is the proud owner of the Austin Princess

Mr Baker ploughed over £30,000 of his own cash into restoring the vehicle (pictured above), which he bought sight unseen at Christie’s for a relatively modest sum some twenty years ago

Havengore, first launched in 1956, has been put on sale to international bidders after its owner failed to find a British buyer

READ MORE: Save Churchill’s barge! It’s the vessel that took our greatest leader on his final journey down the Thames as dock workers lowered their cranes in tribute, but now there are fears it could be sold abroad

‘It is clearly part of British history and it rather belongs here, it is part of our heritage.’

He predicted that such any such venture to allow the public onto the barge would be met with success as ‘there are still a lot of people who consider that Churchill was a great man and the saviour of his country’.

And judging by the popularity of his hearse, this would certainly seem likely.

‘There are a lot of people who are delighted when we tell them it [the hearse] is available. The generation who experienced the war and who see Churchill as a great man are sadly dying. 

‘But it certainly brings a lot of satisfaction to families to see their loved ones carried in such a way on their final journey.

The hearse was restored for Mr Baker, who has transformed 100 acres of his land into a public park and natural cemetery, by Jo Burge of Classic Marine Engineers in Suffolk.

He previously described how the job was ‘a comprehensive overhaul’ which took three years to complete, with the effort involved for the almost total-overhaul ‘pretty breath-taking’.

‘Apart from a small change to the fuel delivery system, which was necessary for safety, it is restored to how it was in the 1960’, Mr Burge added.

But the hours needed to get it back into working shape was all worth it, he said, explaining: ‘It was a privilege to work on it. It’s really good to see that it will now be doing another 50 or 60 years of service in the trade’

The hearse collected Sir Winston’s body from the Havengore at the Festival Pier on London ‘s South Bank, before conveying it to Waterloo Station during his massive 1965 state funeral

The hearse was restored for Mr Baker, who has transformed 100 acres of his land into a public park and natural cemetery, by Jo Burge (pictured) of Classic Marine Engineers in Suffolk

Mr Baker says the hearse is of particular appeal to ‘military families or for anyone who has a sense of history’.

He joins the likes of historian Niall Ferguson, former prime minister Boris Johnson and broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby in urging a British buyer to come forward and save the Havengore.

Current owner Chris Ryland, 75, bought the 85ft vessel for £780,000 in 2006 but put it on sale 18 months ago for £2million, recently knocking the price down to £800,000.

But unless a domestic buyers is found, there are fears this important piece of modern British history could be lost forever.

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