80th Anniversary of VE Day
Five years ago we marked the 75th Anniversary of VE Day on our blog by sharing information about the Regent Street Polytechnic’s reception to the news, as reported in the Polytechnic Magazine.
During May 2020 the Archives team were working from home as part of the nationwide lockdown, and so access to the collections was extremely limited. Thankfully, digital access to the Polytechnic Magazine was possible, enabling some historic research.
Now, for the 80th anniversary of VE Day, we can expand our view and share two other fascinating historic sources – from both the University Archive and Menswear Archive – that highlight different aspects of the end of the Second World War.
"VE Day at the Poly" by Val Wykes, as published in the Journal of the Maths & Physics Dept, June 1945 [RSP/8/1/12/3]
As mentioned in our blog from 2020, the Polytechnic Magazine was quite reserved in reporting VE Day, and focussed on concern for those connected to the Polytechnic who were still in danger in Prisoner of War camps, or stationed in Asia. However, in an unexpected source in our archives, we can get a glimpse of how some of the Polytechnic’s students felt at the time…
The Journal of the Maths & Physics Dept is a typescript document, stapled together, with its first issue dated December 1944. We have only four issues in the archive, and it is unknown how long it continued, or how many copies were ever made. It’s third issue was printed in June 1945 and includes a firsthand account of the VE Day celebrations around Regent Street.
The article starts at 9.30am, with students outside the closed doors of the Polytechnic on Regent Street. The group grows to about a hundred as they made their way down the street southwards. The author describes the crowd encountering an American jeep and ‘menacingly and determinedly’ surging around it to take control of it, before ‘obligingly’ returning it to its owners ‘practically intact’!
Several times the writer refers to the group as ‘fanatical’, and mentions rumours of plans to storm the Houses of Parliament, but that ‘the idea was soon dropped’. It seems this early part of the celebrations reflected ‘the pent-up emotions of the Polyites’.
The second half of the article recounts another ‘more spectacular’ march taking place at 6pm, complete with drums and flags. They travelled down Regent Street to Piccadilly Circus, the students ‘bawling lustily’ in the crowds ‘conscious of the fact that they were making history’, and reaching Buckingham Palace with ‘hundreds of thousands’ of other people.
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth greeted the crowds from the balcony of the Palace eight times over the course of the afternoon and evening, but this is not mentioned in the article, which seems to be more concerned with recording the atmosphere amongst the crowds.
Although this was written only a few weeks after the fact, the article refers to the 8th May 1945 as a ‘historic celebration’, demonstrating its significance to those who took part.
Due to the handmade nature of the Journal of Maths & Physics Dept, the article is not accompanied by any photographs, so we rely on the vivid descriptions by Val Wykes. Nonetheless, we are fortunate to have this unique contemporary view of such a momentous event in our collections.
Lorna Bannister, Senior Archivist
You can read the full article by clicking on the gallery images below.
Three Piece Demob Suit [2018.261.1-3]
Once the celebrations of VE Day had died down, the complicated process of demobilising the estimated five million members of the British armed forces could begin. With a plan devised by Labour Politician Ernest Bevin, priority for release was given to those with skills that would be useful in rebuilding the country; with all other service personnel released according to their age and the length of service.
To help with the return to civilian life, those discharged were issued a package that included a lump sum of £83 (equivalent to around £3800 today), extra clothing coupons, cigarette coupons and a rail travel allowance. On top of this, the government gave instructions for each man to be provided with a three-piece ‘demob’ suit.
These were issued along with a shirt with two collars, a hat, a tie, shoes and two pairs of socks and a raincoat. Many men had spent years in uniform and due to clothes rationing, they would not have been able to afford to buy enough clothing to replace their military wardrobe. Between 1945 and the early 1950s, millions of these ready to wear demob suits were produced in various sizes and colours by factories across the country.
Men who had been used to buying tailor-made suits prior to the war were often a bit disappointed by the fit of their demob suit as the size and cut varied depending on the manufacturer that produced it. For others however, this was the first suit they had ever owned, and it became a wardrobe staple. For example, in my own family, my mum remembers my grandfather wearing his demob suit well into the 1950s.
The Three-Piece Demob suit pictured here was kindly donated to the Menswear Archive in 2018, having been purchased by the donor and her father in an antique shop several years earlier.
Charlie Burns, Menswear Archive Assistant Curator
[Sources: IWM, National Army Museum, BBC, Royal British Legion, Leeds Museums – Info that came in with the garment].