VE Day 80th Anniversary Commemorations

 Straight off I want to say that I make no apologies for the fact that this a very photo heavy post, but I am sorry that some are not very clear because they were taken from the TV.

Well, what a week it’s been!

Over the last few days the country has been commemorating the 80^th Anniversary of ‘Victory in Europe’ and the end of the 2^nd World War on the 8^th May 1945.

Several members of my family served in various places.

 Dad was out in France and Mum worked in a factory in London, where they made light bulbs for the aircraft. It can’t have been easy for her with all the bombing and air raids, in fact the factory where she worked was bombed, but fortunately she wasn’t there when it happened.

Sadly, neither mum or dads are still with us, and dad very rarely spoke about his time out there, but they both played their parts and to say I’m proud of them both is an understatement.

On this day 80 years ago, Winston Churchill gave that famous speech to the nation and people understandably celebrated.

Who knows, mum and her sisters could well have been somewhere in those crowds.

Update on 12 / 5 / 2025

I've just been chatting with my mums sister and her last remaining sibling, who is now 94.  She was the youngest in the family and there were 7 years between her and mum.

She was just 13 at the time and she told me that she remembers going the Buckenham Palace with my mum and dad, but can't remember if any of her other brothers and sisters were there.

She was very slightly built and couldn't see very much because of the crowds, so my dad picked her up and carried her on his shoulders, so she had a better view.

Thank you Aunt Win, I'm so pleased to have this piece of information. xx

This year’s 80^th commemoration started on Monday 5^th May with a magnificent parade from Parliament Green where all the troops assembled

and then marched along The Mall to Buckingham Palace,

where the Royal Family were gathered.

London’s pageantry at its best!  

Once the parade was over, everyone made their way down The Mall to watch the obligatory balcony appearance 

and a fly past that included a Lancaster Bomber and the Red Arrows.

The afternoon finished with a tea party for some of the veterans in the garden of the palace.

 

The commemoration continued on Tuesday 6th with the  reappearance of the ceramic poppies at the Tower of London, as the Queen placed the last of the 30,000 that had been saved from the first instillation back in 2014.

I was lucky enough to see the original instillation back then and was even able to purchase one of the poppies for myself when the display finished. 

In the evening, landmarks across the country were lit up.

And finally today, VE Days itself, there was a service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey this morning, where the Great, Great Grandson of Sir Winston Churchill lit a Peace Candle.

The day concluded with a live concert ‘A Celebration to Remember’ from Horse Guards Parade.

We should never forget what all those veterans did to give us the freedoms we now enjoy given the numbers that turned out to watch the proceedings, we have nothing to worry about.

I'm sure we can all agree that we pulled out all the stops and done all our veterans proud.