VE Day 1945: Your stories

To mark 80 years since the end of the war in Europe, we asked you to share your stories of VE Day 1945.

Pauline Hill, 85, East Sheen

"During the war we lived in Hampton Road in Teddington. I was born in 1940 and have a few memories of VE Day itself. There was a big bonfire and party in Bushy Park Gardens in the evening, which my mother judged I was too young to go to. I can’t understand that decision to this day...

"I have many memories of walking through the American camp which took over all of Bushy Park to get to the post office in Hampton Hill High Street. We took our vegetable peelings there for their pigs.

"One particular memory from shortly after the war on Armistice Day is when a contingent of American soldiers marched through the streets and being amazed how big and tall they were - and so smartly kitted out!"

Angela Ambrose

"These memories are my mother's. She always repeated this story with shining eyes and much laughter. It must have been the most incredible day.

"She was living in London at the time, as my father was on some mission with the army, in Scotland.

"She left my 8 month old sister with my grandmother, and headed out onto The Mall and joined the celebrating crowds around Buckingham Palace, with her cousin Ros. The atmosphere was incredible and full of happiness and people dancing and singing. They ended up on the roof of a black cab, being driven around, for about an hour!

"Her cousin Malcom spotted them in the crowd amazingly, and ended up joining them on the roof of the cab (and subsequently paying for it)!

"8 May 1945 was an incredible date for her, and for so many young people her age, she was in her mid twenties. She died on 8 May 2008, 63 years to the day from VE Day. Again it was a beautiful day, despite the sadness of losing her, but somehow very fitting. Her name was Pamela Gresley Morris."

Moira Corke (nee Bodimeade), 86, Whitton

"I remember VE Day with such happy thoughts.

"I was 5 years old and lived in Sunbury then with my mother (my father was in North Africa during the war years and he did not come home until 1946).

"My mother decided to take me to London, and along with a family friend and his son and we went up to Buckingham Palace. We travelled by bus and I remember seeing all flags and buntings in the streets of the borough on the way and in the city.

"We managed to get to the railings of Buckingham Palace and we children stood on the wall and hung onto the railings shouting "We want the King" and were lucky to see King George VI, The Queen and the two princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret. It was an exciting day and will always stay in my memory."

Maurice Parry-Wingfield

"I was brought up in Chislehurst, a London suburb in Kent, now living in Richmond upon Thames. It was on the return route often taken by enemy bombers after dropping bombs on the London docks. On their way back they would casually drop left-over incendiary bombs on areas such as ours.

"Having been put to bed at the usual time for a six-year-old, I was woken up later to a cacophony of shouting, cheering, singing, all accompanied by the banging of drums and clanking of saucepans.

"My mother came in to see if I was awake and told me that the war had just ended in victory. That meant that before long I would see my Daddy for the first time; after he had spent practically the whole of the war in a succession of prisoner-of war camps. It also meant that there would be no more planes flying over the house at night, no more banging of guns and no more searchlight beams scouring the dark sky. The huge barrage balloons that were for years a looming presence seen from our back garden, would soon disappear.

"Best of all was the feeling that I would be seeing for the first time the kind man that my mother had told me such a lot about."

Share your memories

Thank you to everyone who submitted their memories and stories from VE Day 1945.

We hope that over the bank holiday weekend you will enjoy making some new memories, as we come together to remember, reflect, and honour those who lived through such a significant chapter in our history.

If you're attending a local street party or event to mark the anniversary, please tag us on social media and use the hashtag #RichmondVEDay80.