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Audrey Lambert was ten years old when the end of the war in Europe was announced.

A month earlier she and her family moved from Liverpool to West Yorkshire with her father’s job; he was an inspector of factories and workplaces that made ammunitions.

She remembers hearing about the ceasefire on the radio. Church bells rang following the broadcast and villagers rallied to build a huge bonfire in which to celebrate around.

The majority of Audrey’s wartime memories are centred around Liverpool – the noise of the air raids, the skies littered with barrage balloons and the times spent in their family Anderson shelter, which harboured a cot for her favourite doll.

The move from inner city Liverpool to the rural tranquillity of West Yorkshire was a welcome one.

Audrey’s Father was a member of the local ‘Dad’s Army’. She recalls the solitary tin hat that the men took in turns to take home and how she used to sneak into the spare bedroom to catch a glimpse of the hat resting on a rifle in the wardrobe.

VE Day celebrations in rural West Yorkshire were a low key affair but for a ten year old, accustomed to blackouts and confined lodgings in an air raid shelter, dancing around a towering bonfire was an exciting occurrence.

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