This month we are remembering that 80 years ago our towns and villages were celebrating Victory in Europe, although it was another three months before six years of war were finally over after the surrender of Japan.

When the BBC interrupted its scheduled programming with a news flash announcing that Germany had surrendered on the evening of Monday 7 May it was not a surprise. It had been anticipated for some time and people across Britain were on standby to start celebrating the end of the war in Europe.

In preparation bonfires had been built around the town by the Home Guard, licences had been granted to all the pubs in the area to extend licensing hours until midnight, and landlords had stocked up on beer.

The News

In the weeks leading up to VE Day people were able to follow the advance of the Allies. The local press reported on the progress of the Oxford and Bucks Regiment with headlines such as “Local Lads in the Last Big Push”. Families gathered round their radio for regular news updates. On April 16 listeners would have been delighted to hear that Soviet troops had reached Berlin. Three days later, it is difficult to imagine the shock that listeners would have experienced when they heard Richard Dimbleby’s eyewitness account of the horrors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Relief was felt by all, however, when it was announced that Hitler was dead on 1 May.

The Regent Cinema also showed news reels before and after the movies. British Pathé films released in April showed British Commandos entering German towns, US troops gaining a foothold across the Rhine and Allied prisoners of war marching to freedom.

Families from First Avenue and Hundred Acres Lane celebrating VE Day with a picnic, photo courtesy of Amersham Museum.Families from First Avenue and Hundred Acres Lane celebrating VE Day with a picnic, photo courtesy of Amersham Museum.

Prisoners of War

By May, the Amersham Emergency Hospital in Whielden Street was bursting at the seams with liberated British prisoners of war who had returned from Germany. Mrs Tyrwhitt-Drake who oversaw the Women’s Voluntary Service appealed for “comforts” such as “eggs, game, cigarettes, sweets, soft drinks and any other kind of invalid diet”. That Amersham responded generously is evidenced by the Thank You letters published in the local newspaper. Sergeant Townsend of the Welsh Regiment wrote from 20 Methodist Place, Beaufort, South Wales: “May I through the medium of your paper, express deep gratitude and appreciation on behalf of myself and Staff-Sergeant Howard, of the Glider Pilots, for the great kindness and attention paid to us by the doctors and nurses of C Ward, St Mary’s Hospital, Amersham, and also for the wonderful kindness and gifts received from the residents of Amersham and districts during our stay in hospital. Having just been released from a German Prison Camp, you can imagine what that treatment meant to us”.

John Jacobs, the son of Edith and Joseph Jacobs, a shipowner of Woodland Court, Chesham Bois arrived home on VE Day after spending five years as a POW in Germany.

Sister Katie Krone of Amersham Hospital who cared for repatriated prisoners of war was a Jewish refugee who lost all her family in the Holocaust, photo courtesy of Amersham Museum.Sister Katie Krone of Amersham Hospital who cared for repatriated prisoners of war was a Jewish refugee who lost all her family in the Holocaust, photo courtesy of Amersham Museum.

8 May 1945

VE Day dawned in Amersham with typical British Bank Holiday weather. There was an early morning thunderstorm with vivid lightning, heavy thunder and torrential rain. “But later the cuckoo and the blackbird heralded better things to come” and the rest of the day remained fine.

Queues soon built up at the bakeries as women bought celebration treats and cakes. One of the bakers in Sycamore Road allayed the fears of the waiting customers with a notice “Don’t worry – we are open until one o’clock!” A “jolly” VE Day party, organised by Mrs G Darvell was held on the tennis courts at The Meadows, Amersham Common. Over 100 children were present for the tea with races, games and dancing until dusk, when a bonfire and fireworks caused “shrieks of delight”.

The whole town was brightly decorated with patriotic colours. The local paper reported that: “the streets were thronged with cheerful folk and alight with flags and bunting and ribbon, and the hatless ladies had a nice fancy to deck the hair with red, white and blue; rosettes and streamers of ribbons were favoured; prams, cycles and cars bore their flags”. The “pluck and patriotism” of the resident who climbed to the top of a tall fir tree in the Old Town was also admired. A large flagpole was attached to the top with a Union Jack “which fluttered fully eighty feet above the ground”.

Throughout the day, the church bells rang out in villages, in Amersham-on-the-Hill and from St Mary’s, with the cross of St George flying from the top of the tower. Old and young streamed into Thanksgiving Services in churches, “filled to the brim and flowing over”. Congregations were described as “quietish, sober, restrained with a lurking anxiety as to things to come, which seemed to act as the cold hand clamped upon rejoicing”.

The children of Winchmore Hill posing for a group photo at their VE Day Party, which compared most favourably with other local villages, photo courtesy of Amersham Museum.The children of Winchmore Hill posing for a group photo at their VE Day Party, which compared most favourably with other local villages, photo courtesy of Amersham Museum.

By the evening, celebrations were definitely underway, as large bonfires and hand-held torches were lit, and fireworks set off. One former resident remembered that 20 or 30 signal rockets were let off on the field in Hill Avenue where the Post Office Sorting Office is today; “an awesome sight for a 10-year-old boy!”. After six years of total darkness, it was a joy to see the town lit up with curtains open and black-out material pulled down. Crowds of people kissed and held hands and sang popular songs such as ‘Roll out the Barrel’ and ‘We’ll Meet Again’.

The British Legion drew a huge crowd of dancers in the Broadway. Whilst there had not been enough time to engage a band, the electrical shop, Keens, broadcast all the latest dance music through an amplifying system. “All were in a happy mood, and the gaiety of the occasion was made the gayer by the many fireworks (mostly of the “noisy” variety) which were let off at intervals”. A fitting end to a memorable day.

Please contact info@amershammuseum.org with your VE Day stories and photos and visit our VE Day display in the mobile museum at Amersham’s Memorial Gardens when the RAF Halton Area Voluntary Band will be performing music from WWII.