WELLINGTON Town Council honoured VE Day with support from their town crier for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.

On the morning of Thursday, May 8, the Town Crier read out the official VE Day 80th anniversary proclamation at Wellington Monument.

A two-minute silence was then held at midday in the town centre, when the Town Crier rang his bell to mark the beginning and end of the silence, reading the VE Day proclamation once again.

Mayor of Wellington, Cllr Janet Lloyd said: “In recognition of today's 80th anniversary of VE Day, the King declared that there would be a national two minute silence held at 12.00pm for the nation to reflect and honour all those who participated in their own way to achieving the freedom that we have today.”

In the evening, locals will gather in Wellington Park to listen to Wellington Silver Band and Liz-EE, followed by a VE Day tribute by the Mayor of Wellington and the lighting of the beacon.

Three Wellington residents have shared their memories of the day, 80 years ago.

Grace Trovel, who turned 100 on Monday, May 5, was just 20 by the time World War II ended. Grace had worked in a grocery shop in Essex throughout the war and regularly faced the harsh day-to-day realities for families in Britain at the time.

Her son David was just three months old by May 8, 1945, and Grace’s husband was stationed in Singapore with the RAF, so faced an ongoing battle away from Europe’s celebrations.

She said: “We used to see all the planes coming over. One crashed over the field beyond where we lived.”

Her son, David explained that during his mum’s wedding reception, when she was just 17, there were German bombers flying overhead, and hurricanes came to intercept them.

Grace added: “It was horrible what was happening. But when VE Day came, we had street parties, people found food from somewhere and shared it around in celebration.

“Everybody was really happy. We were dancing in the streets.”

Richard Northam, lifelong Wellington resident, now aged 102, has less fond memories of the day, as an RAF engineer based in India. Like Grace’s husband, Richard (known as Dick) continued in the war struggle for peace in Japan which came several months later.

Colin Green was around five years old when the war came to its end. Speaking to the Wellington Weekly News, he recalls the sounds and the noises, and the impact that the war had on his town West Bromwich, Birmingham, in the years that followed.

He said: “There was an anti-aircraft station right opposite the house, and guns would go off every time there was any Luftwaffe (German planes) coming over.

“They’d go off constantly, rattle rattle rattle. And the houses in the area were new, so when the guns went off, the leaded lights, walls and ceilings would get damaged.

“After dad died (in 1963), I was working repairing things like that. Putting ceilings up, because they’d come down with the guns.”