At the end of a particularly long footnote that listed Winston Churchill’s many major achievements and the great offices of state he had held, A.J.P. Taylor, in his ‘English History 1914–1945’, finished with a five-word sentence – ‘The saviour of his country’.

The popular book had been published not long after Churchill’s death in 1965. Taylor was hardly a supporter of the Tories and indeed was known for his provocative radical irreverence but there was no irony when he wrote those words. It showed how Churchill’s reputation was seen by most at the time.

Even Tony Benn, then a minister in Harold Wilson’s Labour Government, wrote in his diary after hearing news of the wartime leader’s death: “Thus ends the life of one of the greatest Englishmen of our time.”