"T he telegram on January 24, 1965, time-stamped 3:49 p.m., extended a formal invitation to an ailing, largely forgotten ninety-three-year-old British army general in Canada to attend the funeral of a famous ninety-year-old statesman in England: "Please cable if you can or cannot accept invitation to state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill St. Paul's Cathedral London Saturday 30th January 1965 Stop.""
"The invitation was delivered to a name and an address in a distant place, St. John's, Newfoundland, the recipient presumably unfamiliar and irrelevant to the organizers of an event of global interest and historical significance. Major General Sir Hugh Tudor had lived a quiet life in self-imposed exile in Newfoundland for nearly forty years and, by 1965, was almost immobilized by the infirmities of old age."
A telegram in January 1965 invited a frail, largely forgotten ninety-three-year-old British general in Canada to attend Winston Churchill's state funeral in London. The invitation reached St. John's, Newfoundland, where Major General Sir Hugh Tudor had lived in self-imposed exile for nearly forty years and suffered severe infirmities by 1965. Tudor had not seen Churchill for twenty-seven years, but their friendship and correspondence endured as both withdrew from an empire and society that disappointed them. Tudor remained among the men Churchill still loved and admired at the end of his life. Their friendship dated from frequent wartime contact during the First World War when Tudor rose rapidly through the artillery ranks and Churchill served at the front and later as a wartime cabinet minister. By the end of the Great War Tudor had been mentioned in dispatches repeatedly and promoted in the field to major general.
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