Churchill’s wartime service erased in Google timeline

Winston Churchill’s mug missing from Google’s timeline of British prime ministers.

Winston Churchill’s wartime service has been erased in Google’s timeline of British prime ministers.

A Google search on Sunday for “British prime ministers’’ found only Churchill’s post-war tenure from 1951 to 1955, and without a headshot, unlike his predecessor Clement Attlee and successor Anthony Eden.

Churchill’s entire wartime effort from 1940 to 1945 was missing. But others such as Hitler and Stalin are pictured without any editing on their countries’ respective timelines.

The airbrushing of history occurred a day after one of the most famous statues of Churchill was boarded up on the orders of London mayor Sadiq Khan. Mr Khan issued the order to protect the statue in Trafalgar Square from further vandalism during Black Lives Matter and far-right protests. Last week the statue was spray-painted to say Churchill “was a racist’’.

More than 12 hours after Churchill’s “editing’’, the Google Search Liaison tweeted that it was aware an image for Britain’s great wartime leader was missing.

“We apologise for any concern. This was not purposeful & will be resolved. Images in such panels are automatically created & updated. During an update, they can briefly disappear…’’ Google Search Liaison tweeted.

But Google’s explanation hasn’t placated Britons, with some pointing out the absence of Churchill’s wartime tenure was at a least a very odd coincidence, if not very suspicious.

Google claimed it would explore why an automatic update caused Churchill to disappear. “We’ll want to explore exactly why an automatic update caused it to disappear & see if there are any improvements in those systems to address,’’ it said.