South London Memories: Remembering VE Day
South London Press reader Brian Webb still has a photo of the VE Day party his street threw in Marian Road, Streatham 75 years ago.
He said: “I was not quite three then and my parents are no longer alive. My sister is younger as you can see.
My grandmother (Ellen Spearink nee Page) lived at no.9 Marian Road, just out of shot to the left of the photo, and was at the party but not in the photo.
“My grandfather Frederick was killed in August 1915 on the way to the Dardanelles. HMT Royal Edward was torpedoed at sea – he was 33.
He was in the 2nd Battalion Hampshire Regt. and there is a memorial at the Helles Memorial Cemetery in Turkey with his name and number. His name is also on the Mitcham war memorial.
“I believe my grandmother was the first postmistress in Streatham.
“My grandparents had three sons and three daughters. One daughter died of TB when she was 21. My mother was the third youngest.
“My parents had moved to Streatham but my mother spent a lot of time at their home in Marian Road while my father served in the army abroad. That’s how we came to be at that particular street party.
“I hope these sorts of memories might jog some memories of others – maybe some who were at the party and maybe continued to live there.”
Were you at the party? Do you have photographs of the day or other memories?
Allan Wilmot from Lambeth is part of the Windrush Generation having arrived England in 1944.West Indian servicemen, including Allan Wilmot, at an RAF training camp in Finley Yorkshire taken in 1944.
The council held a thank you reception for him in the Lambeth Mayor’s parlour in 2019.
Do you have photographs of the day or other memories? Email toby@slpmedia.co.uk and we will publish your recollections.
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