Forum Topic

We'll Meet Again

Gerry and Jim,You are probably both too young to have enjoyed this evening's BBC trip down Memory Lane, but I have been wallowing - demolished a bottle of white wine in the process -  so have a headache now along with the red eyes from shedding a few tears.....I hadn't quite realised that I am now part of a fast disappearing generation.Saddest of all, not one member of my family realised the importance to me of today.  

Ann S. Allridge ● 7292d7 Comments

Jim,Lovely memory again - I hope you still have those medals in the family.

Ann S. Allridge ● 7289d

Ann: Thanks for another thought provoking posting from your goodself. You are such a treasure!My Uncle Ron..Ron Hayward..who died in about 1956...served in Burma. He was awarded about five different medals ..including the Burma Star.  His medals were POSTED to him by the War Office in a little box ..that was safely delivered to him at Wolseley Gardens where he was staying with my parents.Can you imagine samll packages of medals being handled by the Royal Mail in this day and age!!

Jim Lawes ● 7290d

Gerry & Jim,Gerry:  I'm glad you gave us that little bit of your background;  you often mention Singapore and those times, and I hesitated to ask about it,  knowing how sensitive a subject it could be.  I am so sorry that your news in 1945 was so tragic.Thanks for sharing it with us.I have often said I have no bad memories of the war years, in that people were so nice to each other in London, and everyone cared for one another...it was an awful time yet my memories are happy.  Strange but true.  I wouldn't have missed it for the world, even knowing now how dreadful it was for some.  It made us tough but in a good way.I had an  email exchange with Lois, and we queried the choice of songs the other night.  Some totally inappropriate.  My husband served in Korea (Middx Regt) with a chap who had been taken prisoner in Singapore...you know the state they were in when they were released (our friend was 5 stone!).  Yet, along comes the Korean War 5 or 6 years later, and he was still in the reserve (!!!) and was called up.  It still stuns me,  the absolute disregard and lack of respect shown by the MoD or whoever was in charge, to send this man out to Korea.The great thing about it was my ex swore that Eddie kept at least a dozen of his fellow soldiers alive day after day  by his sheer experience and bravery.    Of course he never received a medal or any kind of recognition.

Ann S. Allridge ● 7290d

Gerry:  That was a splendid moving posting/message.Isn't the Forum a wonderful medium..for placing and sharing with the "world"... one's thoughts and memories about times gone by. Your family now have the opportunity of reading your nostalgic and sensitive cyberspace writings for....evermore!

Jim Lawes ● 7290d

JIM and ANN, I remember the VE celebrations well. I was a 12 year old refugee in Glasgow at the time. There were massive celebrations in the streets and parks - dancing, singing and drinking. It was a time of mixed emotions for us as Singapore was still occupied by the Japanese and there was no news of our father and relatives or our property. Sadly, when VJ DAY came a few months later, we were informed that our father had been killed in 1943 and that our house had been destroyed. So the VJ Day celebrations were ones of mixed emotions for my brother, sister and myself. However, we saw with some pride, cinema newsreels of the liberation of Singapore showing the triumphant parade of Scottish battalions re-entering the City Centre - the Argylls or maybe the Cameronians Highlanders I forget, complete with bagpipes - there was a great roar from the children in the cinema that Saturday morning in Glasgow. And I remember those brave Aussie soldiers' platoons accompanying the Scots - all with sweaty shirts and parade bayonets shining in the sunshine( they didn't like it up 'em Mr Manwaring sir!). Those were interesting times we lived in JIM. God protect us all from another world war.Ann, that was a pleasant programme commemorating the 60th VE Day and the songs brought back emotional memories of the war. But did you notice ANN they didn't play "When the lights go on again" - they played a lot of the other songs but not that one. Happy days. Although I'd never wish for such a war to happen again, I feel the experience taught one a lot about life which was invaluable really. Strange that. :-)

Gerry Tan ● 7291d

Thanks, Jim, for all the great details.  I remember our VE party in the little cul-de-sac off Grosvenor Road, and a big long table made up from trestles and planks covered with bed sheets.Of course, being 12 years old, I didn't really want to sit down with all the kids so 'helped' with serving and clearing.Good grief, what notions we had as children!Our neighbour's son was still in the Far East and I remember my Dad toasting his safe return (lemonade) and everyone cheering.  It was a gloriously sunny day I do recall.

Ann S. Allridge ● 7291d

Ann: My thoughts were with you and others following today's VE day events.I managed only to see the late evening programmes and the views of the crowds in London and the sounds of Vera Lynne evoked memories of those dark times ..which we have described before on this Forum.Whilst London celebrated the news of World War Two ending in Europe in 1945, here were still many tragic stories and happenings to follow both in 45 and 46 and 47 as the troops either returned or didn't return home.Following VE Day, the Government arranged for Victory Celebrations to take place in London on the 8th June 1945 with massive processions followed by a firework display. Central London public buildings...normally soot soiled and unscrubbed..were illuminated from the 8th to 15th June. (In my Dad's old library I have the special London Transport Map and Programme produced for the day)So on 8th June 45, the long column of troops started their Victory Celebrations procession at Marble Arch  and marched along Oxford Street to Tottenham Court Road,then right down Charing Cross Road,through Trafalgar Sq, Northhumberland Avenue, Embankment,Whitehall, The Mall,up Constitution Hill and ended at Hyde Park Corner.In the meantime a "mechanised column" of tanks and Services vehicles, started their procession at Regents Park, along Euston Road ,City Road, and out to Hackney,and then returned via Whitechapel,Aldgate, over London Bridge, Kennington Oval,Vauxhall Bridge,Westminster,Whitehall The Mall, Hyde Park Corner,Park Lane and back to Regents Park.Around this time in 1945, street parties were held in lots of roads in Brentford and Chiswick..but not in all.  Wolseley Gardens,W4 had two..one for VE  and one for VJ and the roads had union jacks and  bunting across the street..the the tables and chairs went down the centre of the road from Whitehall Park Road to Whitehall Gardens.There is still a resident or two in WG today who will remember it. I certainly do.There was also a street Party in White Park Road(South section) and maybe Chiswick poster Hugh was there too.When troops returned home from abroad in subsequent months ..the bunting and banners returned. There must be pictures in old copies of the B&C Times.

Jim Lawes ● 7292d