大象传媒

We were getting more and more and more excited. The war in Europe was nearly over. The 3rd September 1939 had been the day before I was due to start school - now I was almost leaving junior school, and certainly old enough to read the papers, listen to the news broadcasts and know what was going on.

So much had happened in those six years. The victory celebrations in Trowbridge had already been planned. Posters were going up in shop windows amid red white and blue rosettes. Only the date of VE Day had been left out. As we left school on Monday 7 May the teachers told us that if there was an announcement during the evening that Germany had surrendered there would be a holiday for the next two days. The announcement came - and no way were we going to school, but some children and one or two teachers obviously did not listen to the wireless. As we went into the town where bunting was already being put up we passed the school and there on the steps - with the doors locked was a small queue of children and my teacher. We quite happily passed by on the other side of the road. Bunting was also appearing in the windows of many terraced houses, and we had a good tour round. It was great.

My next memory is in the afternoon - a large crowd had gathered outside the Town Hall - loudspeakers had been erected and at three o'clock Winston Churchill made a broadcast to the nation, and in his wonderful and dramatic way told us that war was over - Hitler had been defeated. Churchill also reminded us that there was still much to do - Japan was still at war with us - but this was the great day.

On down to the People's Park, and sure enough Albert Taylor, the organiser of the pre-war carnivals and manager of Fosters menswear, was there, almost as if he was been waiting in the wings. Soon the children were enjoying sports. Before tea there still time for an ice cream. Apart from a shop in town, the only place we could buy ice cream was from the backyard of a house almost adjoining the gas works. It was about half a mile from home and we bought either penny or threepenny cones. There was then a dash home before the ice cream melted, across rough land where buildings had been demolished under pre-war slum clearance. I don't expect these days the ice creams would have met health and hygiene regulations but these ice creams were home-made and delicious.

A procession had been arranged for the late evening, led of course by the Trowbridge British Legion Boys Band. Behind the band came Sammy Paradise and his horse and cart - and there, strung up in Guy Fawkes fashion, were effigies of Hitler and Mussolini en route to a large bonfire that had been built in the lower part of the Park. You can guess the rest. Back home coloured lights had been placed in the trees at the top of Union Street. There all the folk, joined by us children, danced the night away. (This area is now a mini-roundabout but I still think of this when I am driving through the rush hour traffic.)

Street parties had been hastily arranged. Ours was a few days later in the schoolroom of Zion Chapel, which had been used as a storage depot. I don't think it had been officially released by the Government but was reoccupied by the street elders just for the occasion! We marched down from the top of the road with mugs and plates - rather like the soldiers had done a few years earlier. In fact we had to march up the side passage of our own house feeling very important.

There were of course also Church celebrations. At our Sunday School we had been practising a special hymn for several weeks. We also practised for a special service - attended by all the Sunday Schools - which was held the following Sunday in the park on the lawn, where sports events had been held.

Another treasured possession - sadly I have lost mine - was a message from King George VI to all the children of the land. There are still copies of this in museums and illustrated books about the war. There are also memories of VJ Day, but somehow these celebrations were different - in a lower key, to use modern jargon, but more of that later.

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