Brixton and Lambeth marked VE – Victory in Europe – Day with a ceremony and celebration in Windrush Square today (8 May).
It was conducted by Christopher Wellbelove, Deputy Lieutenant for Lambeth, and twice a Mayor of the borough.
“Eighty years ago this week, The United Kingdom and its allies from around the globe celebrated VE Day, the end of the war in Europe,” he said.
“We remember those we lost, those who were wounded or scarred, and those whose lives were forever changed by war. Nobody was immune from the impact of that terrible conflict.
“We also honour the contributions of service personnel from Africa and the Caribbean who served alongside British and Commonwealth forces during both the First and Second World War.
“Their bravery and sacrifices played a crucial role in achieving victory, and their legacy deserves recognition.”
He was speaking a few yards from where a V1 jet-propelled flying bomb killed 25 people on Acre Lane om 28 June 1944. Many such attacks claimed lives locally.
One of the buildings struck was being used as a rest centre for local people who had been bombed out of their homes. As well as the rest centre, 10 houses and shops were demolished and 20 houses damaged.
All the windows on the Acre Lane side of Lambeth town hall were destroyed.
Lambeth Mayor Adrian Garden said the first VE Day was a day of relief, reflection, and remembrance after years of unimaginable hardship, destruction, and loss.
“Today, 80 years on, we remember those who fought not just for victory, but for the values we still hold dear: freedom, democracy, and peace,” he said.
“As we gather in Lambeth, one of the most diverse and vibrant boroughs in London, we are reminded that that our strength lies in our unity.”
Music came from pupils of Corpus Christi school in Brixton Hill and Diane and Miles, who later rounded off proceedings with the Lambeth Walk – famous during the Second World War for its use in a British propaganda film
Council leader Claire Holland said Lambeth especially reflected on the contributions made by service personnel from Africa and the Caribbean.
“Now VE day is a powerful moment of national unity,” she said.
“It reminds us that peace, once achieved, must be safeguarded, not taken for granted. It is also a time to reflect on how far we have come and the responsibilities we carry to uphold the values of democracy, dignity, inclusion, and justice.”
She thanked thank the organisers, as well as community partners who had come together to put on the event, expressing special thanks to Friends of Windrush Square for their advice and support.
Brigadier Karl Harris, founding chair of the British Army’s multicultural network, who has served in Northern Ireland, Germany, Afghanistan and Iraq, said a central plank of British grand strategy in the World Wars was to draw on the 500 million men and women from across the British Empire and many nations of the Commonwealth today.
“It came in many forms, including the physical labour and activities that were on home fronts, on war fronts,” he said.
They ranged from men driving tanks, to women carrying loads of provisions to RAF sites.
“Ploughing fields under the Dig for Victory campaigns with many women of the Caribbean serving in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and the Auxiliary Territorial Service, for instance,” said Brigadier Harris.
“Another core role for the imperial formations was the provision of combat power, men principally in uniform. This was achieved primarily through the mobilisation and deployment of infantry soldiers.
“But there were also notable contributions in the fields of artillery, armour and air power such as light anti-aircraft gunners from Botswana and Eswatini; 25-pounder gunners from Kenya and Uganda; on the seas, tens of thousands of volunteers from India and from the Caribbean served with the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy.
“In the skies over Europe, a kaleidoscope of nationalities flew and supported the Royal Air Force in combat.
In the Battle of Britain one fifth of Fighter Command air crew were drawn from overseas and were represented by 16 different nationalities.”
Brigadier Harris closed with a quote from Nelson Mandela.
“He said that ‘I learned that courage was not the absence of fear but the triumph over it. The brave person is not he or she who does not feel afraid but who conquers that fear.’
“Today, we commemorate the courage and bravery of millions of men and women who conquered their fears to create a better future for all of us.”
Reverend Michael King spoke of his father, Sam King, a Windrush pioneer; one of the founders of the Notting Hill carnival; the first Black mayor of Southwark; co-founder of the Windrush Foundation; and an RAF veteran.
He had told him how the first VE Day celebrations went on “all day and through the night. in clubs, pubs, on the street, everywhere you went, we were comrades”.
His father had walked into a pub in his uniform and although he did not drink, “he he could not leave without at least having a half. He was looking for other military colleagues and the people insisted, There was such a unity and such a joy.”
