The message we can all learn from VE Day
Betty gathered with her family in south London to celebrate the end of World War II. ‘We had an enormous street party – it stretched the whole length of the street, which was about 100 yards long,’ Betty tells me over the phone from her house in Faversham, Kent. ‘We had tablecloths and party hats but there wasn’t much food because we were still rationing. All we had was jelly and little cakes.
‘Everyone from the neighbourhood came – it was a jolly good party. Everyone was so pleased, as you can imagine,’ Betty, who was nine at the time, explains. ‘We weren’t very sociable in those days – we’d lost several houses down the street, people had been killed – but it was a joyous time getting rid of that Hitler fellow.’
Friday 8 May marks the 75th anniversary of VE day, when Winston Churchill formally announced the end of the Second World War. And, before the Covid-19 pandemic forced the world into a standstill, a three-day celebration had been planned across the UK, after the early May bank holiday was moved to the Friday of VE weekend. Street parties and marches were scheduled in abundance and pubs were expected to stay open later. Although these events are now cancelled, some streets will still be hosting socially-distanced parties from their doorsteps, there will be a public sing-along of Dame Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again, and the Queen is set to address the nation.
But what will be most missed from this year’s celebrations is a procession that was
ON 8 MAY 1945,
scheduled to take place on The Mall, where 75 years ago many congregated outside Buckingham Palace’s gates. Among them were Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret – who were 19 and 15 at the time – after King George VI granted them permission to join the crowds. ‘They danced with strangers,’ says Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine. ‘They were swept up in the euphoria of it all and, because nobody noticed them, they were able to feel like everybody else.’
Ida, who had journeyed to London from the Kentish countryside, was also among the crowds outside the Palace. ‘Everybody was singing and dancing,’ she tells Grazia. ‘We talked to strangers, smoked cigarettes and drank beer. Everybody was very happy; people were even dancing in the fountains at Trafalgar Square.’
Meanwhile, celebrations on Jersey were muted on VE Day as the Channel Island was still occupied by the Germans. ‘We heard Churchill’s speech on the radio, but the celebrations had to wait until the next day,’ says Patricia, who describes the profoundly ‘emotional’ moment when hundreds of people gathered to watch the Germans sign their surrender at St Aubin’s harbour.
‘A black taxi drove up to Liberation Square and two naval officers went into a building and unfurled the Union Jack out of the window – it still makes me emotional to think of it now,’ she says. ‘We couldn’t believe we were free after five years. It was an incredible atmosphere – it was the first time I’d seen adults crying for joy. We were talking to everybody and soldiers were throwing boiled sweets to children – it was a very joyful time.’
While the pandemic is, thankfully, not a trauma on the scale of World War II, there is something to be said about the rebirth of a community after a global crisis. When lockdown ends, perhaps we’ll all congregate to celebrate our freedom, that much more grateful for neighbours and communities we may have overlooked before.
Killing Eve’s Villanelle has her hitlist – and we have ours: her entire wardrobe. Although many pieces are off the catwalk, some you can buy in stores – like this The Vampire’s Wife dress. For updates on what Jodie Comer is wearing this season, and where to buy it, head to our shopping pages.
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