Victory Parade - 1995

VJ Day service in 1995

The 50th anniversaries of both VE Day and VJ Day were celebrated in Bourne during 1995 to remember those who served during the Second World War of 1939-45 in the various theatres, in Europe and in the Far East.

On Monday 8th May, the town gathered to commemorate the ending of the war in Europe, an occasion marked by an open air service at the War Memorial in South Street where four additional names were added to the list of those who gave their lives in recent conflicts. The service was conducted by Canon John Warwick, Vicar of Bourne, and attended by the Mayor of Bourne, Councillor Lesley Patrick, and Baroness Willoughby de Eresby from Grimsthorpe Castle with members of the Royal British Legion and town councillors.

There was also an exhibition of wartime memorabilia staged by the Civic Society at the Heritage Centre in South Street under the title Wartime Bourne.

Service veterans again turned out in force on Sunday 20th August that year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Victory in Japan and the ending of World War II. The main event was again an open air service at the War Memorial attended by the Mayor, Councillor Alan Jones, the president of the Bourne and district Royal British Legion Colonel John Thompson and the secretary of the Bourne branch of the Royal Naval Association Hubert Johns. The service at the cenotaph was led by the Vicar of Bourne, Canon John Warwick, who is also the Legion's chaplain, and the thanksgiving was given by Canon Murray MacDonald, a retired colonel who was also chaplain to the RNA. Prayers and the blessing were said by Canon Warwick.

There was a silence of remembrance and the famous words When You Go Home were read by Mr Lloyd Hughes of Bourne, who was imprisoned by the Japanese and was released from captivity 50 years before. The chairman of the Bourne branch of the Legion, Mr George Barber, read from Laurence Binyon's Lines for the Fallen:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

Veterans at the VE Day service

The moving service ended with hymns before the veterans, some in wheelchairs, paraded through the town to the Legion club in Burghley Street where they were presented with commemorative mugs by the mayor.

The previous evening, 3,000 people attended a grand fireworks display at the Wellhead Gardens organised by Mr Ted Kelby, a veteran of the Japanese campaign, Councillor John Kirkman and Mrs Mary Redshaw, clerk to Bourne Town Council. There was also music by the Bourne Salvation Army Band and a variety of stalls.

A celebration party was held on the Sunday evening after the parade at the Bourne Conservative Club which was filled to capacity with the clubroom decorated, wartime music played and a VJ exhibition of memorabilia. Another veteran of the Japanese campaign, Mr Ted Dolman, cut a special cake and toasted the end of the war. Other veterans present were Mr Frank Austin and Mr Joe Payne.

Return to The War Memorial