David Portsmouth鈥檚 Story
Battling the London crowds to see the royals
David was sixteen on VE Day.
He can鈥檛 remember at all what he did in the daytime, but can vividly remember heading to the celebrations in the evening with a friend; getting the tube from Wood Green in North London down to Leicester Square.
The crowds took their breath away, and they managed to head down the Mall and then squeezed into the huge crowd outside Buckingham Place, and even saw the royal family on the balcony.
David then explains how difficult the next five years were for the civilian population, and described them as almost as hard to deal with as the war years. Rationing and lack of food, coal and clothes made life very testing for the British population.
David also explains how the General Election of July 1945 saw a Labour landslide, with most people (and especially those in the services) voting for change. He believes that after five years of war, everyone was determined not to return to how life and society was back in the thirties.
Image: David with his wife Dorothy
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VE Day
Memories of VE Day celebrations from 大象传媒 London listeners.
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