Relatives of Sir Winston Churchill have hit out at St Paul’s Cathedral after the place of worship published information referring to the former prime minister as a “white supremacist”.
The information was part of a biography about the deceased PM and his funeral at the Cathedral in 1965.
The comments – which were live on the website for more than a year – prompted a “Friend of St Paul’s”, 72-year-old Nick Gent to write a letter of complaint, the Telegraph reports.
He called it “heavily charged” and accused the cathedral of spouting “political ideology”/
The article referred to Churchill as “a figure of controversy, as he was an unashamed imperialist and white supremacist.”
His grandson, Nicholas Soames told the Mail on Sunday that the remarks were “deeply offensive” and “ignorant”.
He said it was “too far” even for “some of the more extreme allowances of the Church of England”.
“It was deeply offensive and caused great offence to a number of members of my family, and representations were made by a number of people.
“I am glad to see that the cathedral’s canon chancellor has now written apologising and having the thing taken down. I don’t know how it got there.
“It’s the sort of thing that is so thoughtless, stupid and ignorant and does the image of the Church so much harm. It’s such a terrible thing to say.”
A spokesperson for St Paul’s Cathedral said: “Information on our website regarding the state funeral of Winston Churchill was recently updated.
"It was brought to our attention that part of the text within the description was not consistent with the tone of the rest of the page. We have therefore reworded the paragraph with the aim of making the description more balanced and appropriate in its context.”