Rail Museum feared attack on Winston Churchill's funeral train

Churchill's funeral train was subjected to a security review amid fears it could be targeted by protesters in the wake of Black Lives Matters demonstrations, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

The steam engine which carried Britain’s wartime Prime Minister from his state funeral in London to his final resting place in Oxfordshire is currently based at the National Railway Museum in York.

But emails seen by The Sunday Telegraph reveal fears the locomotive could become the focus of "protest activity" as a result of Churchill's links to "colonialism and empire".

Internal documents also disclose concerns Robert Stephenson’s pioneering Rocket steam engine could attract demonstrations over the locomotive’s association with the slave trade.

While engines named after four-time Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone and Trafalgar hero Admiral Lord Nelson have also been included in a list of displays now considered “challenging” in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests.

Staff employed by the Science Museum Group, which owns the National Railway Museum, told managers the institution’s collections are “inherently racist and colonialist” and “made up of many objects acquired through imperialism”.

And employees highlighted locomotives as potentially problematic exhibits following a review of displays dedicated to scientific and technological innovation. Among them was Winston Churchill's funeral train, named in honour of the Prime Minister in 1947.

The “Battle of Britain” class engine pulled the wartime leader’s rail hearse from Waterloo Station to Handborough, Oxfordshire, so he could be buried alongside his parents following his state funeral in 1965.

Churchill became a central figure for demonstrators in the wake of Black Lives Matters protests in the UK earlier this year amid criticism over his leadership during the Bengal Famine, and his association with the British Empire.

The wartime premier's statue outside Parliament was defaced twice in the space of a week during protests in June, and was targeted again earlier this month when Extinction Rebellion protesters gathered in the capital.

Documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph show how the museum linked the Churchill train to the “strong colonial element in the NRM collection”, as staff relayed information on the “connections to colonialism and Empire” evident in displayed locomotives.

Staff added that: “We intend to address these challenging aspects of railway history.”

Railway Museum experts also highlighted the Rocket engine launched in 1829 by Stephenson, which became the model for all subsequent steam locomotives, as potentially problematic.

Staff warned Stephenson’s benefactor’s, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, had links to profits generated through the slave trade. Evidence also suggested the engineer behind the Rocket voiced approval for the trade on at least one occasion.

“This means that Rocket, together with the Rocket replicas and Liverpool & Manchester Railway carriages could be the focus for protest”, staff warned.

The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the first inter-city line in the world, was said to have been financed by slave owners to transport textiles grown by enslaved Africans while the railway's deputy chairman, John Moss, himself owned slaves.

Further criticism has been levelled at the support of the long-defunct railway’s board voicing support for the Peterloo Massacre in 1819 when British cavalry charged crowds of unarmed protesters, leaving 11 people dead and hundreds injured.

But despite concerns raised surrounding the locomotives, museum chiefs said "no additional interpretation" was planned.

A Science Museum Group spokeswoman said: "A number of objects, including some of our treasured locomotives, were flagged during an internal discussion about potential targets for protest activity during the summer.

"No additional interpretation is being added for these locos, which continue to be firm favourites with our visitors."

Documents show model railway trains could also be targeted over the connections with the Empire, particularly the Raj, where trains “helped strengthen British colonial rule in India”.

Staff suggested increasing the focus on colonial links to the railways and highlighting the contributions made by immigrants after the Windrush arrivals could go some way to reform.