Published: 2025-05-05 12:08:37 | Views: 10
The actor Timothy Spall, who portrayed Winston Churchill in the film The King’s Speech, has begun the VE Day 80th anniversary commerations by reading extracts from the wartime prime minister’s VE Day broadcast.
Normandy veteran Alan Kennett, 100, will formally start the procession after being handed the Commonwealth War Graves Torch for Peace.
Key events
Members of the royal family and government officials have been arriving for the VE Day 80th annivesary ceremony. Live television coverage showed the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, taking his seat shortly before Big Ben chimed at 12pm.
Foreign secretary, David Lammy, has also been pictured arriving.
Reporters from the PA news agency have been speaking to members of the public who have turned out to watch today’s military procession:
“I just love the celebration of it all,” said Laura Bill, a 1940s re-enactor from Staffordshire. The Bill family, who all dressed in 1940s-style clothing for the parade, travelled for three hours to Buckingham Palace.
She said:
We’ve done reenactments all over the country.
We shop at vintage shops a lot. There are traders at events who we buy clothes from. Today is about coming together, and I’m so excited for it.
Jacqueline Bill, Laura’s mother, said:
It’s great to do this as a family. It’s more of a social thing. We know a woman who collects 1940s wedding dresses, we’re hoping to meet up with her later.
Lesley Watson and her friend David are in Whitehall to witness the parade.
David, who did not wish to be fully named, said:
We are here to show the veterans who are on the parade that we support them and we will carry on the tradition.
David, who worked in the Royal Navy for 12 years, wore medals he received for his time working in what was then called Yugoslavia from 1993 to 1995.
Watson, whose father joined the East Surrey Tower Corps during the second world war when he was 17, stressed the importance of remembering veterans. “My father is not alive now but he would have been 97,” she said.
Two women gathered outside Buckingham Palace made their own dresses for the occasion.
Grace Gothard, from Ghana, describing her union flag dress, said:
I made this dress personally. So anytime there’s any Royal occasion I make my own dresses. It took two weeks to make. The last one was the king’s coronation and that dress is in a museum now.
Satvinder Cubb, wearing a dress which reads ‘Lest We Forget’, added:
I also made my dress. I had a union flag one before but this year I wanted something simple to represent all the soldiers that actually fought. It took just a few hours to make because it’s actually two flags joined together. And I don’t have a sewing machine so it was all by hand.
The pair met at the queen’s jubilee and have attended Royal events together in handmade dresses ever since, reports the PA news agency. They arrived at the Mall at 6am this morning.
Cubb added:
I know people who have actually fought in the war. I have a very close friend, he’s 94 and was 14 at the time. It’s just about thanking them all. We’re here for a reason and have freedom now.
It’s important for us to be a part of it.
With the military procession to begin soon, those taking part in the parade have been getting into position.
About 1300 members of the armed forces, including the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the British army and the Royal Air Force, along with Commonwealth nations, Ukraine, and Nato allies are taking part in the military procession for VE Day.
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Ahead of today’s military procession, Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, said:
80 years ago millions of people celebrated the end of the second world war in Europe. This week, we will recreate this moment across towns and cities, in our homes, in pubs and on our streets.
We must do all we can to ensure that the stories and memories of this period in our history are not forgotten. We must not forget the hardships, the heroics and the millions who lost their lives.
We are here because of the sacrifices they made and the horrors they endured. This week, I urge the nation to come together and send a powerful message: we will remember them.
Actor Timothy Spall has been pictured this morning rehearsing Winston Churchill’s 1945 victory speech, in front of the statue of the war time leader. Spall will do this reading at 12pm before the military procession begins.
Here are some images coming in via the newswires today:
At 12pm BST, actor Timothy Spall will read part of Winston Churchill’s VE Day broadcast. A military procession will then begin, making its way from Parliament Square towards Whitehall, passing by the Cenotaph, before heading to Buckingham Palace via the Mall near Trafalgar Square. You can see the full procession route in the map below:
At 1.45pm, King Charles and Queen Camilla will watch a flypast of current and historic military aircraft over Buckingham Palace.
People are beginning to gather near the Cenotaph ahead of the procession at noon.
Maria Crook, 69, travelled from Devon to London on Sunday and set up to watch the procession from Whitehall early this morning.
“I think it’s extremely important to pay our respects and honour those who have died for us,” she told the PA news agency.
The 69-year-old, wearing a hat with red, white and blue ribbons tied to it, sat near the Cenotaph and attached a large union flag with silhouettes of paratroopers on it to the barriers in front of her.
Crook said:
I came for VE Day in 2005 and the atmosphere was fantastic.
I’m going to dash down to Buckingham Palace after I’ve seen the procession. I want to get a great view of the Red Arrows and hopefully see Charles too.
As we await the start of today’s ceremony in London, the PA news agency has been speaking to those that have travelled to the city to watch the parade:
One group of women gathered outside Buckingham Palace have brought along song sheets to pass out to the crowd. They practised singing their songs ahead of the parade.
Mandy Ellis, 67, from the Midlands, said:
We do all the royal events. I’ve been doing this 60 years now. We all get the gang together – there’s seven of us come down. The oldest is my auntie Linda, she’s 87. My daughter Cara, she’s the youngest.
Wearing a union flag hat, she said:
I sing in the local choir, we’ve had some song sheets over the years for different events so I just adapted them at home. We’ve got everything from Land of Hope and Glory, We’ll Meet Again, Pack Up Your Troubles, the national anthem.
It’s the smallest thing we can do to say thank you for 80 years of peace and the sacrifice everyone made.
David Smith, a military royal engineer from 1960 to 1972, travelled from Lincolnshire on Sunday to honour the veterans at the parade. The 79-year-old said: “It’s about patriotism. It’s what we do.”
Smith has marched at the Cenotaph for 26 years and will watch the parade on Monday from the Mall.
His wife, Muriel, said:
Where we live in Lincolnshire, the ‘bomber county’, there is always a bomber base five miles from you. There’s still air raid shelters where we live.
About the parade, the 77-year-old said:
I just love the songs, the ceremony, everything. I’ve heard some stories about Victory Day. Some naughty stories!
Lizzie McCrae MacIntyre, a retired Women’s Royal Air Force veteran, arrived at the Admiralty Arch, Westminster at 4am to see the parade.
MacIntyre, who travelled from Surrey, said:
It’s so important to remember those that didn’t make it home. My dad was military, my brother was air force.
Geoffrey York, 71, said: “We are all ex-military.”
The Household Cavalry veteran said:
We were here for the coronation, we camped out for three nights for the queen’s funeral. It’s a big day for us to pay our respects.
My dad was a prisoner of war in Tobruk, Libya. He escaped in 1944.
Street parties will be held in towns and cities across the UK as part of the special events – including community tea parties, 1940s dress-up events, and gatherings on second world war warships, reports the PA news agency.
Local authorities throughout the country have offered support for communities and organisations wishing to hold a VE Day street party, with some councils such as Portsmouth waiving fees to close roads for the celebrations.
The Palace of Westminster, the Shard, Lowther Castle in Penrith, Manchester Printworks, Cardiff Castle and Belfast City Hall are among hundreds of buildings which will be lit up from 9pm on Tuesday.
A new display of almost 30,000 ceramic poppies at the Tower of London is also set to form another touching tribute. The poppies have been aranged to resemble a wound to reflect the long-lasting sacrifices made during the war.
A service at Westminster Abbey will begin with a national two-minute silence of reflection and remembrance on Thursday, where veterans will be part of the congregation. Horse Guards Parade will then hold a live celebratory concert to round off the commemorations.
Pubs and bars have also been granted permission to stay open for longer to mark the anniversary. Venues in England and Wales which usually close at 11pm will be able to keep serving for an extra two hours to celebrate on Thursday.
Churches and cathedrals across the country will ring their bells as a collective act of thanksgiving at 6.30pm, echoing the sounds that swept across the country in 1945, the Church of England said.
Photos from VE Day in 1945 showed joyous scenes across London as crowds gathered to celebrate victory over Nazi Germany.
Ten years ago, the Imperial War Museum released colourised, amateur footage shot in London on Victory in Europe Day that showed how people in their thousands turned out to celebrate in the capital.
