Marking VE Day in Brighton, May 1945

A great wave of relief has swept over the whole country, for in remembering the difficulties through which we ourselves have passed we remember also the fate which most assuredly would have been ours had our enemies triumphed. An age of darkness would have been inaugurated in Europe in which the vicious rule of Nazidom would have polluted all the sources from which civilised community draws its life, hope, its happiness and its culture. This has, indeed, been a people’s war, and it is right that the people should give thanks and rejoice.

The tables were laden with paste and lettuce sandwiches, spam and beetroot sandwiches, sausage rolls, slab cake, sponge cake, jam tarts, and fancy home-made cakes with an array of flowers and flags.

The centre of Brighton’s VE jollification was the Clock Tower. On both nights, large crowds gathered there and amused themselves by blowing whistles and letting off fireworks (both forbidden during the war), shouting and singing. From time to time, there was a sort of tom-tom beating - caused by hammering on the panels of any bus that wanted to get through the crowds. Hove, I hear, was quiet. A colleague tells me that most Hove people seemed to go into Brighton to celebrate. Certainly there was not the same rowdiness in the streets after dark. But, of course, you expect Hove to behave with decorum even on such an occasion...

The firework display which was enjoyed by several hundred people in Castle Square, Brighton, on VE-night was given by Messrs. S. Lee of Radio House, 48 East Street. The staff worked until 12.30 p. m. giving a radio show, looking after the floodlighting and the fireworks which were of magnificent pre-war brilliance and of a very superior quality. It all started with the relay of the Premier’s speech in the afternoon which drew huge crowds. After this, the people stayed on to hear the subsequent programmes. After closing down during the evening, the radio relayed the King’s speech, following which there was dance music, which was made full use of by the merry-makers in the street...