How town gave thanks for the ending of the war in Europe
ON SUNDAY, May 13 1945 the people of Ormskirk and District marked the Allied victory in Europe with a joint denominational thanksgiving service in the Parish Church and a huge open air celebration in Moor Street.
Community singing, led by a dance band perched on a flat bed lorry, had followed the Rev Canon FA Woodrow and Rev WG Freeman of the Emmanuel Methodist Church giving the service of prayer and hymns.
A parade had started in Church Fields led by the band of the King’s Liverpool Infantry Training Centre at Formby.
The Ormskirk Prize Band also paraded, along with the Scouts, Guides and other local groups.
The townsfolk packed into Moor Street in front of the Kings Arms and joined in the celebrations led by the newlyelected chairman of Ormskirk Council Mr AE Newall.
This was a scene to be repeated just three months later when the town held celebrations as the news of victory over Japan was confirmed on August 15.
Ormskirk had been honoured to greet the King and Queen in the town in March 1945 and the streets had been decorated and schoolchildren crowded into Moor Street in front of a stage erected in front of the King’s Arms.
The King and Queen were greeted by county officials and local officials were introduced to the Royal couple, among them were the chairman of Ormskirk Urban District Council, Mr WE Freeman, and the vice chairman, AE Newall, along with chairman of the Ormskirk Magistrates Charles Hesford.
There had been several Ormskirk casualties during the war.
Among the men from the district lost was 23-year-old Charlie Ames, son of Mrs Albert Ames of Small Lane.
Charlie had been evacuated from Dunkirk and then was posted to Sicily with the RASC where he was killed in 1943.
He is recorded on the Comrades Roll of Honour, the Comrades Memorial in Coronation Park and on the Emmanuel Methodist Church memorial.
Ormskirk Grammar School old boy Sgt. Observer Walter Ardern, only son of Mr and Mrs Joseph Ardern, who had a newsagents at 4 Railway Road, was lost in June 1940.
Walter joined the RAF in August 1939, he was a member of the Parish Church choir and the Ormskirk Operatic Society.
Another RAF serviceman from the town was killed in February 1944. Flt Sgt Navigator George Bailey, son of William and Margaret Bailey of 10 Halsall Lane was just 21 and he is remembered on the Parish Church memorial and the Comrades Memorial.
Third Radio Officer Kenneth Peter Berry, 30, was lost at sea in November 1940 after serving on the SS St Elwyn.
Kenneth was born at Rockview, Greetby Hill, in 1911 and lived at Bank House, Derby Street, after he married.
The 4,940-ton cargo ship St Elwyn of the South American Saint Line was sunk by the U-1O3 east of Bishop Rock as she sailed from Hull to the port of Santos, Brazil, with coal.
Twenty-four of the crew were lost.
Kenneth is remembered on the Parish Church Memorial and the Comrades Memorial
Able Seaman John Brady, son of Bernard and Mary Ann Brady – of 12 Ravenscroft Avenue – was just 19 when he was lost at sea on December 30, 1942.
He was a gunner on the SS Empire Shackleton, which was in convoy from Liverpool to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
On December 29 the ship was torpedoed by U Boat 225 and damaged.
U Boat 123 then disabled the Empire Shackelton with a further torpedo.
Then gunfire from U-435 finally sank the ship.
John was one of the crew rescued from the freezing December waters of the North Atlantic by the SS Fidelity, a straggler of the convoy.
The day after he was rescued by the Fidelity, the same German
submarine, U-435, torpedoed her and he was lost along with 326 other men.
John is remembered on the Plymouth Memorial, the Parish Church Memorial and the Comrades Memorial.
During the Manchester Blitz of December 1940, the family of Frank Silversides of 38 Colinmander Gardens.
Aughton, were visiting family in Miles Platting. Frank had just moved his wife, Edna, and four-year-old girl, Margaret Beryl, to their new home and taken work locally.
Tragically, the whole family, plus Edna’s mother and brother, two sisters, two brother-in-laws and two nephews were killed in the bombing.
Eleven months later, as a
German plane was pulling away from a Liverpool air raid, it dropped bombs in Ormskirk, specifically in Yew Tree Road.
Robert Hopkins, 36, was killed by the first bomb dropped; his wife, Jessie, survived.
Further bombs dropped on Greetby Hill and near the hospital with no further casualties reported.