An image of Prue Sizeland, Annie Duplock and Jane Darlison. All three women experienced VE Day in 1945. Prue is looking away from the camera. She is smiling. She has light brown hair and is wearing a pink suit and pearl earrings. Annie is smiling vivaciously at the camera. She has white hair and is wearing her Land Girl uniform which comprises of brown dungarees, a green jumper and a brown felt hat. Her Land Girl badge can be seen on her dungarees and hat. Jane is looking reflective. She has grey hair and is wearing a blue jumper with a gold necklace.

From rationing to rejoicing: Three women’s bittersweet memories of VE Day

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By Lucy Wallis and Special Projects team 7 May 2025 News

As World War Two raged across Europe, those back in Britain faced their very own battles on the home front. The war meant nearly six long years of enemy bombings, food rationing and the heartache of missing loved ones who were away fighting.

But on 8 May 1945, cheers rang out across the country as Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared victory in Europe. The BBC has spoken to three women who shared their stories of VE Day - then and now.

An image of Jane Darlison, aged 90, is positioned next to a sepia photograph of herself as a child. In the sepia photograph, Jane is looking away from the camera. Her shoulder length hair is held back by a hairband. She has a gentle smile on her face. In the contemporary image, Jane is recreating the same pose as her childhood photograph. She has grey hair and is wearing a blue jumper with a gold necklace.

Fizzy lemonade and fish paste

Aerial attacks had proved relentless in Thornton Heath, greater London, where Jane Darlison was growing up in a maisonette with chickens in the back garden. She was just five when war broke out in 1939.

Now 90, Jane remembers one particular air raid vividly. She was huddled in the family’s Anderson shelter in the garden with her mother and brother. But her grandmother, who had been shelling peas in the kitchen, wasn't able to get in.

A "doodlebug", or flying bomb, could be heard above. It suddenly went quiet. The bomb fell, and obliterated the houses on the other side of the road, Jane recalls.

"We came out of the shelter thinking, 'My grandmother, my grandmother!'" says Jane.

"My father was at the allotment just down the road. He came out with a lettuce in one hand and a knife in the other and he didn't know whether we were going to be alive or not."

A black and white image of the garden from Jane’s home in Thornton Heath. Jane spent the war years here. At the back of the garden is a small greenhouse. Either side of the lawn are plants and shrubs.

The family's garden

Jane sits at a table in her home. She is looking through photographs and reminiscing. She is wearing a blue jumper and there is a green patterned mug on the table next to the photographs. Behind Jane is a window, which looks out on green grass and trees.

About a mile away, in Norbury, Jane's aunt and 15-year-old cousin, Deanie, would hide under the stairs during air raids. A direct hit one day killed them both, she says sadly.

Black and white images capture memories of Jane’s past. The photograph on the left is an image of Jane as a baby. Looking down on her is her aunt, her brother and her cousin, Deanie. Her cousin is smiling at Jane. Her aunt is wearing a stripey, patterned dress and is also gazing lovingly at Jane. Jane’s brother is looking up at the camera with a cheeky grin on his face. He is wearing a double-breasted jacket. The photo in the middle is a picture of Jane, aged five, in Brighton. The image is on one side of a postcard. Jane is standing on a large rock, or piece of wood, and is wearing a swimsuit. On the reverse of the postcard is a message handwritten by Jane’s cousin which says: "My cousin Janet at the age of five at Brighton in the year 1939 when the war was on." The final photograph is of Jane’s father. He is dressed in a suit and is riding a bicycle.

Jane treasures a postcard - handwritten by her cousin - showing a picture of Jane as a child.

Three black and white photographs capture memories of Jane’s past. The photograph on the left is of Jane as a baby. She is at a beach in Bournemouth and is being held up to be photographed. The photo in the middle shows Jane and her brother as children playing in the sea. The final image is of Jane with her father and brother. They are facing the camera. Jane’s father is dressed in a shirt and trousers. Her brother is wearing a shirt and knee-length shorts and Jane is wearing a swimsuit.

On the reverse her cousin wrote: "My cousin Janet at the age of five at Brighton in the year 1939 when the war was on."

Jane as a baby, with her brother and father

When it was finally announced that Germany had surrendered, Jane recalls the excitement of being able to celebrate victory in Europe at a street party with her neighbours on 8 May 1945.

She remembers making hats for the party and looking forward to the blancmange, jelly and fish paste. But there was also something very special on the menu that day.

"My father said, 'Well, you know, it's all right having fish paste, but it'd be nice to have some meat', which would be a luxury," says Jane. "And so he decided he'd kill a couple of chickens [from their garden] - but not my favourite one.

"My mother was in the kitchen plucking these chickens with feathers everywhere."

Jane tucked into chicken sandwiches with brown bread, fizzy lemonade and a Victoria sponge made by her mother with the eggs, she recalls.

"These were an absolute treat because we didn't get many treats and we really relished it all," she says.

A black and white photograph of Jane in 1953. She is crouching down on the grass and holding her baby son. He is sitting on a little chair and is chewing his hand. Jane’s son is wearing a baby bonnet and Jane is looking smartly dressed in a buttoned shirt.

Now based in Surrey, Jane plans to spend the 80th anniversary of VE day with her family and follow the events on television.

I do reflect a lot on the war. I know it's long past, but it does leave you a lasting memory of all those people that sacrificed their [lives].

A black and white image of Jane in 1951 at Tooting Lido. She is holding on to a handrail as she climbs into the pool and is posing for the camera. She is dressed in a swimsuit and is smiling happily. Her hair is styled and curly and she looks relaxed.

After the end of WW2, the hope was for lasting peace to endure, long after the bunting and flags had been taken down.

But as war returned to Europe in 2022 with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Jane says she feels sad about the situation today.

"I feel for my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren" she says. "It's such a toxic world we live in now."

An image of Jane, aged 90, standing outside her home. She looks at the camera seriously and is wearing a blue V-neck jumper, white trousers and a gold necklace. In the background is a brown front door.

An image of Annie Duplock, who is 101. She has white hair and glasses with gold frames. She is wearing her Land Girl uniform which comprises of brown dungarees, a green jumper and a brown felt hat. She is beaming at the camera, almost laughing. Alongside is an old black and white image of Annie. She is wearing a shirt and tie, a hat and her long socks are pulled up over her trousers. She is looking at the camera seriously and is standing in a field.

'I'd go back if I could'

Sitting in her garden in Leicestershire, Annie Duplock is dressed in a dark green jumper, dungarees and a brown felt hat.

It is the same uniform she wore 80 years ago as a member of the Women's Land Army, working on a farm near Hinckley.

But Annie is now 101 years old.

A collection of images of Annie. She is dressed in her Land Girl uniform and is at the Cenotaph in London in 2011. In one of the images, Annie is holding a Land Girl poster which says on it, “Join the Women’s Land Army”.

Annie celebrating at the Cenotaph in 2011

She was so keen to become a Land Girl in 1940, the then 16-and-a-half-year-old told a white lie, and pretended she was 17 so she could enrol.

With the male farm workers away fighting, women, like Annie, kept the farms and food chains alive at home.

Up at 05:00 and not in bed until 23:00, Annie would milk the cows, plough the fields, feed the animals and collect the eggs. It could be dangerous work.

"I went down the field to fetch the horse," she remembers. "His name was Ginger, and I patted it on its bum, and I said, 'Come on, Ginger,' and it just kicked me."

Annie "went up in the air", she says, and had to take a week off work to recover.

A close-up image of Annie’s Land Army badge. The text on the badge reads: “Women’s Land Army and Timber Corps”. The badge is green and gold. It has a gold and red crown at the top.

When Prime Minister Winston Churchill finally announced victory in Europe, Annie remembers hearing it on the radio. "We all went mad," she says.

"We had a bit of a party ourselves on the farm and then, when milking was done, we went up to the town to see what was going on.

"There were tables in the middle of the road, everywhere, and everybody was having a party. Singing, dancing, music. And there were flags all over the place."

Children shouted and squealed excitedly, says Annie, "playing about, knocking cups of tea over".

But there was also a poignancy about the celebrations.

Three black and white photographs show the VE Day celebrations in the town of Hinckley in Leicestershire in May 1945. In the first photo, five women are linking arms and celebrating. In the second photograph, crowds have gathered together to celebrate and a woman is being pushed in a cart. In the third photo, people are posing for a photograph at a street party. Teacups and sandwiches can be seen on the table.

VE Day celebrations in Annie's town of Hinckley

You were thinking about [the people that] didn't come back.

Eighty years on, she is planning to mark VE Day again, but will be taking it "a bit steady this time", she says.

"I shan't feel like enjoying, shall I?" says Annie, for as time goes by, there are fewer people to celebrate with.

At its peak in 1944, there were more than 80,000 women, like Annie, working in the Land Army, feeding the nation. Thinking of her time on the farm she says, "I'd go back if I could."

And if someone asked her to plough a field again, “I could do it now,” she adds.

Annie, aged 101, is sitting in her colourful garden. She is watering the flowers and smiling contentedly. Annie is dressed in her Land Army uniform - brown dungarees, a dark green jumper and a brown felt hat. The sky is blue behind her.

An image of Prue Sizeland, aged 88. She is wearing a pink suit, pink patterned blouse and a pearl necklace and earrings. She is smiling but not looking directly at the camera. Alongside is a black and white image of Prue as a child. She has a patterned dress on and short curly hair. She is smiling sweetly at the camera.

'Coming home to see my daddy'

Prue, now 88 years old, spent the war years on a different continent, far away from her home town of Croydon in south London.

In September 1940, her father had sent his family to Toronto, Canada, to escape the threat of invasion, says Prue.

Working in the RAF Signals, he had been selected for secret service work. One of his appointments had been at the home of the British codebreakers, Bletchley Park.

A collection of black and white photographs capture memories of Prue’s past. In the first photograph, Prue can be seen smiling alongside her mother and baby brother. Her mother and brother look very serious. Prue’s father smiles at the camera in the second photograph. He is dressed in a military uniform.

A colourful image of medals that have been laid out on a wooden table.

"My mother had only £25 from, I think, the government to go," says Prue. "Seven months pregnant, no husband, me age three. It was quite a problem for her, poor thing."

Despite being teased about her English accent at school, Prue, her mother and younger brother, who was born in Canada, were treated as war guests, she says. A stark contrast to life back in Britain.

"They were suffering bomb damage, rationing," she says. "We had no rationing. We had bananas, we had candy."

If the family had travelled on another ship just a week later, their fate may have been very different though.

A ship, the SS City of Benares, was taking 90 children from Britain to Canada when it was torpedoed by a German submarine.

"That really got through to my mother," says Prue. "I remember she used to quote it a lot after the war, saying how lucky we were."

On VE Day, Prue remembers dancing in the streets, but she didn't really know what she was celebrating, she says, just that it meant she could go home.

I was going to see my daddy.

Newspaper cuttings and black and white photographs show how VE Day was celebrated in Canada. In one of the photographs, a Canadian soldier receives a VE Day kiss. In another photo, servicemen and women celebrate in Nova Scotia.

A Canadian soldier getting his VE Day kiss, and servicemen and women in Nova Scotia on VE Day

The family returned to Britain on RMS Queen Elizabeth in September 1945, which had been commissioned to bring home the troops, says Prue.

A map details Prue’s journey home from Canada, via New York, to Southampton in the UK. The map shows all three countries. Prue returned to the UK on the RMS Queen Elizabeth.

She believes some of the people on the ship may have been former prisoners of war in Japan.

"I just remember these terribly thin men in khaki uniforms with round spectacles and they were so pleased to see us children. It was lovely," she says.

"They kept wanting to offer us candy, which was no real treat, but it was very kind of them."

Prue, who now lives in West Sussex, will be celebrating the anniversary of VE Day with her fellow care home residents.

"There are so many of us," she says. "We've all got a story because we're elderly people."

There will be a "knees up", "a jolly good party and a few drinks", she says. Maybe even some fizz.

Prue sits at a desk and is smiling happily at the camera. She has a glass of fizz in her hand. She is wearing a pink suit and patterned blouse and a map of the world can be seen in the background.

But with war still casting its shadow in Europe, she does not forget the suffering of the Ukrainian staff at her care home.

"I consciously go up and give them a hug when I see them because I feel so sorry for them," says Prue. "I think it's tragic."

Prue sits on a garden chair in the shade at her care home in West Sussex. She is dressed in pink and is smiling at the camera. Surrounding her are plants and flowers, including daffodils.

Produced by

Elise Wicker

Photography by

Emma Lynch

Design by

Lily Huynh and Mansi Katta

Image credits

Hinckley District Past & Present Archive

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