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This story was submitted to the People’s War Website by Doreen Bennett on behalf of Diana Horner, the author and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

GAS LAMPS LIT

On VE Day I was a member of the WAAF, stationed in London at the then Air Ministry.

My most enduring moment of that incredible day is the overwhelming relief and sheer exuberant happiness of everyone, particularly after the final unnerving bombardments by the V1’s and V2’s.

It was a glorious warm sunny day, as with a group of friends and in company of thousands, we surged through the London streets — up to Buckingham Palace, along the Mall, through Trafalgar Square and so on.

By dusk we were in Coventry Street (between Piccadilly and Leicester Square) when from nowhere, emerged a little man in a cloth cap, carrying a lamplighter’s pole, to light the gas street lamps, which had remained unlit for almost six years.

He was the hero of the hour and was carried shoulder high from lamp to lamp, lighting each in turn, before disappearing into the crowds, no doubt to join us all in the celebrations.

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