On 8th May, the UK will celebrate the 80th Anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. When peace was declared in 1945, the event was marked by spontaneous street parties and celebrations with even the young Princess, later Queen, Elizabeth sneaking out to join the celebrations on London’s streets.
When asked about her experience in later life she reminisced she and her sister Margaret were caught up as “lines of unknown people linking arms…were swept along by tides of happiness and relief.” resulting in “one of the most memorable nights of my life.”
As the 80th anniversary approaches, Scout groups across Berkshire are taking their lead from our former Monarch and Patron to celebrate with their local communities through fetes, street parties and beacon ceremonies.
Many other groups will mark the event in their sessions, through activities designed to help our young people educate and explore the significant historical events of this time. One group even got in touch to say their young people were intending to explore rationing by using a genuine wartime recipe to make chocolate spread out of mashed potato and cocoa powder – the real thing not being readily available in a wartime economy!
All the below events are open to their local communities, so if you are in the area, please do pop along to support our groups and say hi! They’d love to see you and celebrate this momentous milestone in European history.
Kennet District
On Saturday 10th May, a number of our Kennet groups are taking part in a VE Day Community Event at Victoria Park in central Newbury.
Members of 1st, 2nd and 3rd Newbury, 1st Wash Common, Greenham and the Pegasus Explorer unit will all be in the park from 11am-3pm running a variety of traditional games and activities in a quintessential English fete setting. Activities on offer from our groups include tomahawks, soft archery, Pioneering poles Wood Whittling, Lashing, Shelter building, welly wanging and have a go games. Once guests are worn out from all the fun, they can refresh themselves with one of the many options on offer including, BBQ & Drinks, Cakes, Chocolate Fountain, and of course, S’mores,
1st Binfield
1st Binfield are taking part in local celebrations across the week of VE Day. On Sunday, they worked alongside other local groups to run a VE Day celebration for the wider community and took part in a bit of fundraising at the same time.
This will be followed by participation in the national beacon lighting ceremonies on Thursday 8th May and participation in a full colour parade on May 11th to commemorate, not only 80 years since the end of the war, but also a century of the Royal British Legion in Binfield.
We wish all groups taking part in VE Day celebrations a memorable few days and don’t forget to send us your best snaps from the anniversary events for our ‘Photo of the Month’ competition.
We’d love to see what you’ve been up to.