With this week's commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of VE Day, I thought it would be interesting to see what my family were doing during those times.
VE Day - or, more formally,Victory in Europe Day - was a Bank Holiday in Britain on Tuesday May 8th 1945. It marked the formal acceptance of Nazi Germany's surrender. Hostilities now ceased in Europe (although Japan did not surrender until three months later).
It is hard today for us to imagine what our families went through during those dark days of WWII. It is estimated that 45,000 tonnes of bombs were dropped during Germany's Blitz on Britain causing the death of over 60,000 people.
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| Bombed-out London |
So with the end of WWII now in sight, the mood of Britain and her allies was euphoric.
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| Ada Coward (née Harris) |
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| Descendants of Ada Coward |
My grandmother Ada Coward (née Harris) - who had spent the terrible days of the war as a single mother trying to raise her family - took my mother Joyce Coward, and brother Eddie, and went with a neighbour to central London to see the thousands of partying people.
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| Trafalgar Square VE Day |
Joyce described how Trafalgar Square, Parliament Square and the Mall were thronged with Londoners lighting bonfires, climbing up lampposts and singing and dancing in the bombed streets. Her sister Dolly (Dorothy) had also made the journey with a friend. Gradually Ada and her two children managed to get near to the gates of Buckingham Palace and joined in with the chanting of "We want Lizzie! We want George!"
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| The Royal Family with Prime Minister Churchill |
Eventually King George VI and Queen Elizabeth appeared with their daughters Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, and waved to the joyous multitude. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had made an official announcement of Germany's unconditional surrender at 3pm that afternoon, joined the Royal Family on the balcony.
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| Ruth Wait (1926-1946) |
But while the cities across Europe and America were celebrating, the War in the Pacific continued. My father Sam Wait, was fighting in Burma with the 4th Field Royal Artillery. His sister Ruth, would never see him return. She contracted tuberculosis and died on 22nd April 1946. When her photograph (above) was taken, she was already very ill, but proudly wore her brother's Fourteenth Army Badge on her dressing gown. This can be seen on her collar. (The Fourteenth Army, known as The Forgotten Army, were the British multinational force, comprising of units from the Commonwealth sent on operations in Burma during WWII).
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| John Coward (1923-2002) |
John Coward, my mother's eldest brother, joined the Royal Navy at the age of 17. Between 1941-2 he was at Little Powder Island in Ceylon (Sri-Lanka) and the Royal Navy Facilities at Trincomalee.
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| John Coward c.1943 |
As a child, John learnt to write naturally with his left hand, but at school he was forced to use his right. So he became ambidextrous, like his father (John Coward 1902-1962), and therefore very useful to his future military employers. He spent twelve months in the tiny Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean as part of the British Signals Intelligence at one of their 'Y' Stations. These sites collected and analysed radio traffic. As a telegraphist (using morse code) he intercepted German and Japanese messages. If they were encrypted they were passed onto the Admiralty in London or Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire for processing.
John was one of a few selected for this special operation and he was paid 3d extra a day because the Japanese language has more letters! But due to the many mosquitoes he caught Dengue Fever and became very ill.
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| SS Matiana |
During his career in the Royal Navy, he took passage on SS Sun of Varte for a week, SS Matiana (an Indian prison ship) and HMS Bambara Naval Station.
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| Reginald Coward |
Reg Coward was about 18 years old when he received his call-up papers. He wanted to join the Royal Navy like his eldest brother, but he was sent to the East Kent Regiment (the Buffs) and was stationed at Folkestone. During his service he was sent to Malaya and in 1945 he was guarding Japanese prisoners in Hong Kong.
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| Kenneth Coward (1928-1994) |
Kenneth Coward, aged 17 in 1945, was working as a builder during the war. However, he joined the Royal Navy shortly after as a Captain's Steward.
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| Dorothy Coward (1925-1972) |
During the start of WWII, Dorothy Coward tried to join the ATS (Auxiliary Teritorial Service) and the Land Army, but because of her heart problems neither would take her. So she went into a munitions factory, making aircraft parts. When the war ended, Dorothy was working in their offices.
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| Albert 'Eddie' Coward |
Aged eleven in 1945, Albert 'Eddie' Coward is the youngest of Ada's children. He would later be stationed in Cornwall with the Royal Air Force and it was there that he met his future wife, Jean Pascoe.
My grandmother was one of the lucky ones. Her family survived WWII. Many thousands did not. I will shortly be publishing a post on how Ada and her family lived through the devastating London Blitz.
