Bonfires and bunting as conflict finally comes to end

With little time to plan large-scale celebrations, people began frantically putting up bunting and calling on neighbours to kickstart street parties in places like Canterbury, Maidstone and Faversham.

Pubs had their licenses extended too, so the celebrations were able to go well on into the night, and many pubs ran outofale.

American, British and Soviet flags were waved in their thousands and blackout curtains were ripped up to create makeshift bunting hung from house to house.

In Gravesend, 10,000 people attended a bonfire and torchlight procession in Woodlands Park.

The town was robustly decorated in garlands made of red, white and blue wax paper and were draped over the Clock Tower and threaded with strands of rope.

A surface shelter in Ashford was converted into a community bandstand, where singing and dancing took place throughout the night.

Rationing was still in place, and would continue until 1954, so neighbours pooled together what food they had, sharing tins of fruit and homemade dishes.

As a child, Sylvia Smith, 79, from Ashford, had only known a life under wartime provision and blackouts, and recalls being frightened by the celebrations.

She said: “There was a big pile of wood and stuff with a man on the top. “Everyone was clapping, singing and cheering. Then there was a big fire and the man was burning. Then there were big bangs and flashing in the sky. “Nobody ran away. I thought, ‘Why not, when bombs were going off ?’ They all were just dancing and singing. I was glad when it was time to go home. “For weeks everyone was happy but I was sad. I was told it is safe now and there would be no more war.

“I said I didn’t like the big fire and the man being burnt, or the bombs. I was told don’t be silly it was only a dummy and they were fireworks not bombs.” People living in Maidstone contributed to the street bonfires and sat around them in deckchairs, singing songs long into the night.

Alongside the scores of Canterbury pubs open until the early hours, hundreds

of people flocked to thanksgiving services at the cathedral, to remember the hardships and people lost throughout the conflict.

Alan Dudney, 85, of Lower Herne Road, Herne Bay, pictured right, was just 10 at the time.

He said: “As children, our contribution towards the festivities was to gather large amounts of wood and other combustible items that made up this huge tack in the middle of our road, which was to be the all-important bonfire.

“It is quite remarkable to me, looking back, that we lit this huge bonfire in a very narrow road so close to gardens and houses.

“I think it was accepted that during those days we lived dangerously, in dangerous times.”

On the coast, blackout restrictions were still in place, but after Churchill’s speech was broadcast, people ran to the harbour as ships sounded their sirens.

Those in Ramsgate defied the restrictions and lights went on throughout the town.

In London, thousands flocked to Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace, where the Royal Family stood with Churchill as they waved at the crowds. In one of the most famous moments of the day, Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth, were allowed to leave the palace and wander among the crowds, a moment our Queen has since described as “one of the most memorable nights of my life”.