A spokeswoman for the National Literacy Trust explained: “If you are referencing a quotation word-for-word, use double quotation at the start and end of the quoted section.

“Place full stops and commas inside the quotation marks for a complete quoted sentence.”

Meanwhile Dr Tara Stubbs, an English lecturer at the University of Oxford, went one step further, telling The Telegraph that the omission was ‘condescending’ and ‘dumb’.

She said: “It is a bit peculiar because it looks like it is the five pounds that’s speaking and not Winston Churchill. There should be quotation marks and full stop, definitely.

“It also doesn’t have the Oxford comma after ‘tears’. To take that stuff out is condescending and I find efforts to dumb down like this just irritating.”

Oh, the audacity.

Did you spot this big mistake on your new five-pound note?