The Mayor’s Speech from the VE Day 80 Beacon Lighting is below:
“Hello everyone, and a very big welcome to this event – as we celebrate 80 years since the end of World War Two – known as Victory in Europe or ‘VE’ day, 2025.
And a special welcome to Dennis Thatcher our WW2 Veteran. We are deeply honoured to have him join us this evening. We also note with sadness the passing of WW2 veteran, Norman Barlett, from Blackwater who died very recently (in March, a week before his 99th birthday). Last year, Norman made a poignant journey to the D-Day beaches in Normandy to pay tribute to his fallen comrades. His memory will forever be cherished by this community.
There are QR codes around the green to scan for the words for the Hymn ‘I vow to thee, My Country’, which we will be singing little later.
I expect that the majority of people here were born after World War Two, but for people of my age – and perhaps many of you here too – the war had a big effect on our lives.
This manifests itself in several ways.
Firstly, of course, Europe and the world was freed from Nazi oppression by the actions of millions of heroic people. I for one, cannot imagine what going through nearly 7 years of a total war must have felt like, not just for those who fought, but for the people on the home front awaiting news of their loved ones and in many cases suffering from bombing attacks.
Secondly, we have all been touched by the war in some way. My father was a pilot in North Africa, and my mother was in the WAAF – they met and fell in love in Algeria in 1944.
The map of the world was redrawn after 1945 – not always in a good way – but history was shaped by the immensity of this conflict. Happily, the nations Britain fought against are now our friends and allies.
Thirdly, as a nation, together with many other countries, we need to remember the sacrifice of those people who had no choice but to fight for freedom and eventual victory from 1939 to 1945.
My father’s generation never seemed to talk about their part in the war. As a child I found this perplexing, but now I realise that this was a necessary and important part of ‘surviving’ the memories and experience that they went through. For example, my wife’s parents were teenagers in Nazi-occupied Norway – the stories they have told me are utterly harrowing.
Millions of servicemen and women returned after 1945 to a world that did not recognize the trauma of conflict – or PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) as it is called today. There was little in the way of counselling or other psychological help, so the wartime generation just had to ‘get on with it’.
Given all these factors, it makes it so much more compelling and important that we never forget what these brave people went through to secure the freedoms that we enjoy today – freedoms that perhaps we even take a little for granted.
A few years ago, I visited Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany. It had a big effect on me when I realised just how many innocent people had lost their lives in this one place, and how such evil had been done by man to his fellow man.
So, by remembering the 80th anniversary of VE day – as both a celebration and a commemoration – we honour the people who made these sacrifices so that we can be free today.“
Cllr Dr Mark Griffin
The official VE Day 80 Proclamation: