2025 marks the 80th anniversaries of VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) on 8 May and VJ Day (Victory over Japan Day) on 15 August.

The Archivist recently collected eyewitness accounts from two retired Masters from Hurst, who were children on the Home Front on 8 May 1945.  For your interest  here they are George Hill,  (OJ Chevron 1945-51, Master and HoM Martlet 1956-75, later Headmaster St Georges School, Windsor) still lives nearby in Hurst village. Also our current Archive Volunteer, Roger Moulton, (Head of History Hurst Junior School 1968-96).

Mr George Hill writes...

'V E Day, but I was there in Whitehall!  My parents and I had just moved to Ilford from the Buckinghamshire countryside where we spent the war. My sister was away at school, but my parents and I went up to London for most of the day. We found ourselves at the back of a huge crowd at the Westminster end of Whitehall. The word went round that Churchill was coming up from the Houses of Parliament to appear on a balcony on the river side of Whitehall. There was a sudden ever-increasing sound of cheering. I (aged 12) could not see much until I was hoisted on to my father's shoulders. Churchill appeared from the other end of Whitehall; my recollection is that he was sitting on the bonnet of a car, but it may have been an open-topped vehicle. It stopped and those aboard climbed out to disappear into the Ministry of Health building on the northern side of Whitehall. This meant that we were near the front of the crowd when the great man appeared on the balcony to acknowledge the deafening cheers. Home to bed and peace.'

Mr Roger Moulton writes...

'It was one of my earliest memories. I was 6 weeks short of my third birthday. Because of the war my parents and I were living in Cheshire. I can still picture the Union Jack which my Father had hung from the Oak tree in our front garden and a sense of joy, happiness and celebration. The sun was shining. I had no idea what it was all about but everyone around me was enjoying themselves.'

Below is an extract from our Hurst Johnian Magazine about the way the College itself celebrated. We have no first hand accounts from 'serving' OJs in Europe on actual V E Day.  As we know the fighting continued in the Far East and rationing continued at home. Some troops took nearly a year to return to the UK, others (such as OJ pilot Stanley Dowse, Fleur de Lys 1932-36, a hero of the Great Escape from Stalag Luft II) were finally released from various POW camps across Europe, but for one day back home it seems there was a brief lifting of spirits.