It is now eighty years since my grandfather, King George VI, announced to the nation and the Commonwealth that ‘the dreadful shadow of war has passed from our hearths and our homes’. The liberation of Europe was secured. His words echo down through history as all this week, and especially today, we unite to celebrate and remember with an unwavering and heartfelt gratitude, the service and sacrifice of the wartime generation who made that hard-fought victory possible.
While our greatest debt is owed to all those who paid the ultimate price, we should never forget how the war changed the lives of virtually everyone. Now, as then, we are united in giving utmost thanks to all those who served in the Armed Forces, the uniformed services, the Home Front, – indeed all the people of this country, the Commonwealth and beyond whose firm resolve and fortitude helped destroy Nazism and carryour allied nations through to V.E. Day.
That debt can never truly be repaid; but we can, and we will, remember them. Over the course of the last year, there have been 80th anniversaries across Europe, from the hills of Monte Cassino to the Lower Rhine at Arnhem. Last June, I was profoundly moved to join veterans of D-Day at the new national memorial overlooking Sword Beach, as they returned to honour their comrades who never came home.
In January, as the world marked the liberation of Auschwitz, I met survivors whose stories of unspeakable horror were the most vivid reminder of why Victory in Europe truly was the triumph of good over evil. All these moments, and more, combine to lead us to this day, when we recall both those darkest days and the great jubilation when the threat of death and destruction was finally lifted from our shores.
The celebration that evening was marked by my own late mother who, just 19 years old, described in her diary how she mingled anonymously in the crowds across central London and ‘walked for miles’ among them. The rejoicing continued into the next day, when she wrote: ‘Out in the crowd again. Embankment, Piccadilly. Rained, so fewer people. Conga-ed into House. Sang till 2 a.m. Bed at 3 a.m.!’
I do hope your celebrations tonight are almost as joyful, although I rather doubt I shall have the energy to sing until 2 a.m., let alone lead you all in a giant conga from here back to Buckingham Palace! The Allied victory being celebrated then, as now, was a result of unity between nations, races, religions and ideologies, fighting back against an existential threat to humanity.
Their collective endeavour remains a powerful reminder of what can be achieved when countries stand together in the face of tyranny. But even as we rejoice again today, we must also remember those who were still fighting, still living with conflict and starvation on the other side of the world. For them, peace would not come until months later with V.J. Day – Victory in the Pacific – which my father witnessed at first-hand from the deck of his destroyer, H.M.S. Whelp.
In remembering the past, we must also look to the future. As the number of those who lived through the Second World War so sadly dwindles, the more it becomes our duty to carry their stories forward, to ensure their experiences are never to be forgotten. We must listen, learnand share, just as communities across the nation have been doing this week at local street parties, religious services and countless small acts of remembrance and celebration.
And as we reach the conclusion of the 80th Anniversary commemorations, we should remind ourselves of the words of our great wartime leader, Sir Winston Churchill, who said, ‘Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war’. In so doing, we should also rededicate ourselves not only to the cause of freedom but to renewing global commitments to restoring a just peace where there is war, to diplomacy, and to the prevention of conflict.
For as my grandfather put it: ‘We shall have failed, and the blood of our dearest will have flowed in vain, if the victory which they died to win does not lead to a lasting peace, founded on justice and established in goodwill.’ Just as those exceptional men and women fulfilled their duty to each other, to humankind, andto God, bound by an unshakeable commitment to nation and service, in turn it falls to us toprotect and continue their precious legacy – so that one day hence generations yet unborn maysay of us: ‘They too bequeathed a better world’.
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