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This story was submitted to the People’s war site by Leona Siaw of ´óÏó´«Ã½ London on behalf of Mr Basson and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Basson fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

Mr Basson
I was very young at the time, I’m 75 now. VE day was fantastic. People were dancing, they were up the lamp posts, they were on the monuments. There were sailors, all the forces.
It was a fire work night- electric!
Everyone was so happy. It brings back quite a lot of memories. There were thousands and thousands of people. I was standing outside the ‘Joe Lions’ which was a popular tea shop where you could go and get sandwich, you could buy a salad for 26p.
There weren’t a stage or anything like that. I think Churchill did come. It was a major party. They were held all over the country.
I was in Kent during the war. From our garden we could see a glow of fire. Some people slept in the Underground. Algate Station was bombed and they closed it because there were so many people down there who never got out. The war went on for six years and people didn’t know whether one day they were going to be invaded or you were going to survive. I was about 8 or 9 during the time. In those days you had to survive on what you could get to eat.

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