At the End

VE Day and the Aftermath

Written and compiled by Maisie Bolton and EMOHA.

"There was a real sadness about friends . I still feel very sad about the friends I lost. I think you have that forever, rather like you do for anyone you've known awfully well. Particularly as they died so young." Peter Moore.

The night of 8th May 1945 saw mass celebrations across the country. The end of the war in the majority of Europe and the beginning of Victory in Europe (VE) day is a time many Leicester people look back on with nostalgia. Individual stories from those who experienced the celebrations create a vivid portrait of the chaos and carnival of the day.

In Leicester, plans had been made for the day. The declaration by Prime Minister Churchill that the war in Europe would finish at midnight came at 3pm on the 8th May, although crowds had started gathering in Town Hall Square from 10am that morning. There was a service of thanksgiving at 11am during which there was a downpour of hail and rain followed by thunder and lightning. People fled for cover and the Leicester Mercury reported that during the storm '...there was not a single person to be seen in the centre of the city'. Fortunately, the weather improved later in the day. This was followed by a speech by the Lord Mayor, and a speech by the King that was broadcast over loud speakers on Town Hall Square. This was followed by music and community singing.

A two day public holiday was declared. Schools, businesses etc. were given instructions as to how long after the declaration they should stay open. For one evening only, pubs were given an hour extension, from 10pm closing to 11pm, and for the first time in five years everyone could turn on their lights after dark! Town Hall Square was lit by floodlights and coloured lamps, and fireworks were set off (the Leicester Mercury stated it was a mystery as to where these had come from).

There were many street parties, which is what most people remember. People brought out food and drink they had saved for the day. Effigies of Hitler were burned on bonfires. People paraded through the centre of Leicester and the Mercury reported on one person climbing the clock tower, a 'kilted piper' on Granby Street, and the crowds only starting to thin after 2am.[1]

In the clip below, the speaker suggests that VE day is less remembered as a time of national importance, but more of a time for her community to celebrate. Although of global importance, local attitudes towards commemorative days like VE Day show what was truly significant to those who experienced it:

In another clip, the speaker expands on the traditional understandings of celebrations and street parties. The speaker suggests that churches and other community centres were hives of activity:

For others, the chaos of the day led people to scenes they were typically unfamiliar with. The clip below encapsulates the disorder of the day:

Not everyone celebrated VE Day. The Leicestershire Regiment was still involved in the Far East, whether as combatants or POWs, and many families still faced the possibility of losing loved ones. Victory over Japan (VJ) Day was celebrated on 15th August in much the same way that VE Day had been. This was mainly because events had moved so quickly there had not been time to form a committee, and it was easiest to repeat the format of a thanksgiving service in Town Hall Square. The celebrations were possibly more boisterous than on VE Day as a number of accidents and examples of high spirits/vandalism were reported.[2]

The official surrender of Japan was on 2nd September - almost six years to the day after Britain went to war with Germany. See the Japan and South Asia page for reactions to the use of the atom bombs.

Coming home

(See also the final section of the Far East page)

Civvy Street is the term given to life outside the military. For those who made it home there was the joy of meeting loved ones after years away. Blanche Harrison fainted when her husband, who had been away for four years, knocked on their front door unexpectedly one evening! However, for many men and women, coming home proved to be a shock after years of being in the armed forces.

Some came home to children who didn't recognise them, or to families that had lost other members in the conflict. Some returned with injuries or diseases, such as malaria. Some had what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) - memories in EMOHA's recordings include returning servicemen being scared of loud noises, having nightmares, having to sleep on the floor rather than in a bed, or having to sit near open doors.

"I came back thinking that everyone owed me a living. I was a captain out there (India), I was on a pretty good rate of pay. I could imagine everybody queuing up at my front door wanting to employ me, but did I have a shock. They couldn't give two tuppenny damns about me. And it was tough, it really was tough coming back into civvy street." Capt. John Jee.

"I had quite a long leave first, a couple of months, and then I went back to work, but it was difficult. It was difficult for all of us, I think, to try and pick up the threads after seven years. There was no such thing as counselling in those days. There was no counselling for being shelled or anything like that, you sort of found your own way around that sort of thing." Bill Richards.

"When I eventually came home in 1946, I had a son three years old who I'd seen something like four or five times, and a son 18 months old who I'd only seen once. Very difficult. I felt very bad about it, really, because when I came home to live at Ibstock, I had no trouble at all with my youngest son, but the one who was three, he'd been 'fathered', so to speak, by my wife's brother. He really didn't want anything to do with me. It took a year to gain his confidence. I also found it difficult to live in a house. Living out more or less in the wilds for six years, it was difficult to live within four walls." Len Taylor.

In this clip, Joyce Grogan recalls the feeling of deflation that she and others felt on their return from Egypt:

There was no singular way that people experienced VE Day, VJ Day or the return home from the military; the array of stories told by local Leicester people illustrates this point. Honouring the individuality of these stories is just as crucial as connecting these interviews to the wider global context of the war.

What happened next?

Globally, somewhere around 70,000,000 people died during WW2, although this is a broad estimate. This staggering amount of death and misery is hard to comprehend. The rebuilding of human lives and urban infrastructures took many years and has been written about elsewhere. For example, the Imperial War Museum's 'Beyond VE Day' webpage .

In the UK, 384,000 people were killed in combat and 70,000 civilians died, mostly in bombing raids. In Leicester, 122 people died in bombing raids and a further 280 were injured.[3] Many people from eastern Europe were stranded in the UK as Russia now controlled their home country and returning home could be dangerous. Resettlement camps for Polish people were establised across the country, with five in Leicestershire. This situation is looked at on the Eastern Europe page on this website and on our Post-War Leicester website.

As noted on our Food and Rationing page, rationing continued for many years after the war, and when all food rationing finally stopped in the summer of 1954 it ended 14 years of rationing.

Planning for Leicester's future had been happening since before the start of the war and there had been a very popular exhibition about 'Leicester of the Future' in the museum on New Walk in 1944. This would eventually result in slum clearances, new housing estates, and improved road networks. For more information look at our Post-War Leicester website.

At the time of the 1945 General Election on 5 July 1945, 35,000 Leicester men and women were away in the services and voted in what was termed a 'khaki' election. Nationally, the Conservatives, led by Winston Churchill, suffered a huge defeat (Labour won 393 seats, up by 239, while the Conservatives won 197 seats, down by 189).[4] Leicester returned Labour MPs in all its constituencies. This was a shock to many - Peter Barkby describes it being 'devastating for some people', while Mary Chapman remembers crying at the news. In the military, Peter Moore was surprised that some officers celebrated Churchill's defeat as he assumed they would all be Conservative voters. Janet Ingall recalls her family's attitude being that Churchill was good for the war, but was not the leader for peace or for change. This was clearly a widespread belief.

The Beveridge Report of 1942 paved the way for extensive health and welfare reforms, and the National Health Service started in 1948. However, Britain was effectively bankrupt and economic recovery took a long time. Leicester's broad manufacturing base meant the effect of austerity was not felt as badly in some places, and the city didn't need rebuilding like London, Coventry, Plymouth and others badly affected by bombing. To see what Leicester looked like at the end of war and what happened in the next few years, have a look at our Leicester 1945-1962 web exhibition.

References and Further Reading

[1] Both Ben Beazley (Wartime Leicester) and Vince Holyoak (But For These Things) describe events at the end of the war in the final chapters of their books. Further information about the celebrations is from the Leicester Mercury, 10 May 1945.

[2] Holyoak, p.240.

[3] UK figures from: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/olympic-britain/crime-and-defence/the-fallen/ and Leicester figures from Beazley, p.69.

[4] 1945 election results from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1945_United_Kingdom_general_election