Memories of VE Day as county marks 80th anniversary

Commemorations have taken place across Shropshire to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

They included street parties, wartime music and dancing, as well as church services.

People who witnessed the day when the announcement was made have also been sharing their stories.

Sally Baggealey from Ellesmere said she remembered "an eruption of sound" and the news, followed by days of celebration.

Vic Wardman from Weston Under Redcastle turns 100 this month and was in the RAF during the war.

He said was called up in 1943 and said when the end of the war in Europe was announced he was in Southport and thought it was "marvellous", and he went into the town to celebrate on the pier.

The news was a "great relief" he said, but it was not the end of the war for him, because he was posted to India the next day.

Sally Baggealey had been doing her midwife training when the war ended and remembered the scenes when the news was announced.

She said: "The immediate reaction was stunned silence and then the eruption of sound. People didn't know what to do."

Now 103, she remembered everyone dancing in the street and said she made the decision to travel to London with her friend Eunice.

She said Trafalgar Square was "chockablock" and there was "just one large joyous sound" as people celebrated.

The following day, there were street parties for the children, with fish paste. She said: "Everywhere there were smiles on everybody's face."

Joanna Yardley from the YMCA was involved in organising a street party in Wellington to mark the occasion.

It included tea and cake, a fish and chip van and street singers, and she said they were trying to educate people about the role of the YMCA during the war.

It served allied soldiers in Britain and in Normandy and her husband's great grandfather had served in the YMCA regiment.

She still kept his cornet and said it was "very, very humbling" to have that personal connection.

"I do feel a bit patriotic about it all," she said.

Michael Judge visited the Lakelands School in Ellesmere to tell them his memories of the war and to read from his cousin's diary, written at the time.

He lived in Portsmouth when the war broke out, before being evacuated to Winchester as a child.

Mr Judge remembered seeing the boats leave for D-Day and said: "All the streets were lined with army lorries, you couldn't move for army lorries and soldiers everywhere."

The next morning he said he woke up and they were all gone.

"It wasn't until later in the day that we found out what had happened," he said.

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