Although she was just three-years-old when the news broke, Patricia de Haan remembers the jubilant scenes in Dawley on VE Day.
The 83-year-old sat down with Telford MP Shaun Davies on Tuesday, sharing her experience and memories.
The 83-year-old sat down with Telford MP Shaun Davies on Tuesday, sharing her experience and memories.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00So Patricia, you've got some great memories of VE Day we hear. Tell us about those.
00:07I've got just one memory. I was three. Little girl, little doorly girl, an ordinary morning.
00:13Mum and I, we lived in Chapel Street. Mum and I were standing outside. Mum was cleaning the front room window.
00:21And suddenly, from the entry opposite, Mrs Martin shot out shouting, the war's over.
00:27And I just remember that moment. I can remember what Mum was wearing, turban on her head like they all did, stockings, brown lace-up shoes, the look on Mrs Martin's face.
00:40Sort of desperate to tell people what was going on. Indeed, I don't remember anything after that.
00:46Mum said there was dancing in the street last night. I'd be in bed.
00:49But it must have been the joy, the elation of that moment. And I remember it quite clearly.
00:56Oh, do you remember the celebrations when the soldiers came back and how happy everyone was?
01:01No, I don't remember anything like that. Dad wasn't a soldier because he was in a restricted object.
01:07He was a winder at Kemperton Pitt, so he was there all day, all night. They were hauling coal.
01:13I remember him in the home guard with his rifle.
01:17He went to St Margaret's Bay to guard the coast as part of his duties there.
01:21But no, only that instance, which must have been full of so much joy, that it stuck in my mind.
01:31You must have remembered several VE days since then, celebrating the occasion. Have you had some good times celebrating it since?
01:37Not in Dawley, no. Because once I left, I went from here, Dawley National, over the way, to Colbertdale.
01:46And from there I went to college in London. All my professional life has been spent in London.
01:51And it's only when my first husband died, ten years ago, that I came home to Shropshire.
01:56And here I am, home in Dawley.
01:57How important do you think it is then to be celebrating VE Day?
02:01And obviously the 80th anniversary, it's a big occasion, isn't it?
02:03It's a big occasion, and I think it's important that everybody, young people and old, remember it.
02:09And give thanks. Thanks for what people did, for those who gave their lives for it.
02:16A memory of gaining freedom.
02:21Splendid time to remember.
02:22And I'm delighted to be here with Sean to remember it today.
02:26Yeah, Sean, hearing Patricia's memories, what's your reaction to that? They're great, aren't they?
02:31They're great, and I think it's really important that this generation of people's stories are remembered and preserved as this video and your report will do for generations to come.
02:41Because it's really important that we don't forget, we don't forget the sacrifices that people made, we don't forget that there isn't a given that this country will be at peace all of the time.
02:52And actually we've enjoyed a lot of peace over the last 80 years or so.
02:57Virtually all my life, when I was three at the end of the war, and it's been at peace ever since, thank God.
03:04And it's important that we continue to strive for that.
03:07And we worked together for it.
03:08Do you want to tell the story of the young servicemen and the beads?
03:12You've got the beads, lovely.
03:15At the top of Chapel Street, then, there was a big schoolroom attached to the Methodist Church.
03:21And it was big enough so that when the American soldiers came through, as they did on the way to the coast,
03:27presumably they'd landed at Liverpool and were going down to the coast,
03:32they were bedded down there, and local residents took in the chaps in the evening to sit by the fire and talk.
03:42Two of them came.
03:44One of them, he gave his name as Darkie.
03:47I sat on his knee, and when he left, Darkie gave me these beads.
03:56Here they are, Darkie's beads.
03:58I've treasured them ever since.
04:00And on Remembrance Day, they sat on the altar in our local church to remember him and all his colleagues, his comrades who died.
04:10I treasure Darkie's beads.
04:13They're quite beautiful.