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Ealing Road VE Day Party, 1945
Diane Elphick (Gardner) sent this photo of the Ealing Road VE party: We were in fancy dress and posed in front of the air raid shelter - I think 'departed spirits' was the 1st prize. I lived in Ealing Road but the photo was taken at the junction of Braemar Road by the Princess Royal. I assume that it would have been difficult to close Ealing Road.
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Notes
Over 80 people, perhaps a quarter adults and the rest children, feature in the photo and all look relaxed and happy (one exception - the clown bottom right). Not many children are in fancy dress: a few nurses and a cow boy stand out. Adults include the vicar and a man wearing a ribbon with badge of office hanging from it - not mayorial chains, but something to mark him out. Four women to the right and two to the left have striped ribbons pinned to their dress - perhaps in red, white and blue?You will spot some posters on the shelter wall at the back: the one to the right starts 'HELP HIM' and a Google search comes up with 'Help him to finish the job vote National', a poster for Winston Churchill, then prime minster. The election was on July 5th 1945 and Clement Attlee, the Labour candidate, achieved a landslide victory for the Labour party who subsequently implemented the welfare state and created the National Health Service. The BBC website has more.
Read more about VE-Day celebrations in 1945.Perhaps you attended one of these parties? Please get in touch if you can add any names.
Published January 2017; updated May 2020