Community members at Shap were welcomed to the Old Courthouse on 5th May to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of VE Day. The library room was decked with bunting, flags and balloons and the long tables were set with vintage china. Images of life in the UK during wartime and on VE Day were shown on the large screen and 40’s music played in the background. There was a great deal of chatter as everyone, took their places. A delicious buffet was enjoyed by all. It included a corned beef and potato pie as a nod to wartime fare.
Following lunch memories were shared. Janet Wood read excerpts from the transcribed memories of her late father-in-law, Samuel Wood, who served with the 6th Battalion of the Kings Own Border Regiment. Sam became split off from their regiment soon into his active service. He was on the run for five weeks before being captured. Eventually he was transported to Stalag VIIIB camp in Eastern Germany, near the Polish border. A PoW for five years he had recalled events leading up to the declaration of peace when, due to the advancing Russian troops, the German guards kept the PoW’s on the move, marching every day towards Dresden, sleeping in farm buildings at night. Two of Sam’s friends made a bid to escape but were captured and shot. One day their German guards had disappeared and they realized that Peace had been declared. He described how they eventually arrived outside Dresden, were flown first to Brussels and from there back to England.
Several of those attending displayed items of interest including, a ration book, newspaper from March 1945 and family photos. Mavis Walsh had pictures of herself, a young girl, dressed as a nurse at a VE Day fancy dress event held at her school in Blackpool. Maureen Wilde, a little girl during the war, showed a tiny metal identity bracelet that she wore. It had her name and address engraved on the tag so that she could be identified should she come to any harm as a result of the frequent bombing raids on her home town of Sunderland.
One of the recollections came from Ian McColm. He was born in 1938 and grew up in Newton Heath, north of Manchester. His father was called up and Ian didn’t get to know him till he came out of the army in 1946. He and his mother would go to the air raid shelter whenever the sirens signaled a raid.
He told how his Grandfather, who lived with them, always refused to get up out of bed and go to the shelter – except for one night when a bomb landed on the pub further down the street and Grandfather ran into the shelter most perturbed shouting out “It’s the end of the world – the pub’s gone!” Phyllis Brown shared vivid memories of VE Day when, as a boarding school pupil in York, she heard the bells of the Minster and churches ringing and proclaimed “the war must have ended”. That evening she and several other girls went up through the dormitory and used the fire escape to go out and join the dancing in the streets. Unfortunately someone had noticed them and reported them to the head resulting in them being severely reprimanded the next morning.
Proceedings continued with a 40’s quiz and ended with a sing-along of wartime favorites led by Mark Stephenson with his own accompaniment on the ukulele. Throughout the event all acknowledged that VE Day was still a sad time for many and was not the end of the war but all were grateful for the sacrifices made by armed forces and civilians during World War II to secure freedom for future generations.
