Northamptonshire historian says VE Day is a celebration of freedom
Towcester based Philomena Liggins says VE Day 80 years ago was one of celebration but also sadness for those who wouldn't return.
A local Northamptonshire historian says Victory in Europe Day should be seen as a 'celebration of freedom.'
Philomena Liggins, is hosting a event for the Royal British Legion at Towcester Mill this evening in honour of the 80th anniversary of VE Day, which marked an end to the Second World War in Europe.
"I think it's a celebration of freedom, because these people had been at war for six years.
Can you just image when they heard over the radio when Winston Churchill said, 'Hostility's will end after one minute to midnight tonight."
"There was a tinge of sadness behind it because some people weren't going to come back."
Philomena, who lives in Towcester, worked at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire for seven years as a tour guide and used her knowledge to write three books, including, “Footprints – Secret Lives at Bletchley Park” and “Moonlight Serenade – Secret Skies Over Bletchley Park” and with another out soon, “Agents, Aliens & Spies” about the Second World War, with another on the way.
"I met lots and lots of lovely people and veterans as well as well as the Second World War. And when you used to ask them what they did, they'd say, well, not a lot.
And you say, well, you did work there for six days a week with shifts running around three times a day, one day off a month. So you did do quite a bit there, but they they were all so very modest about the work that they'd done there."
In honour of VE Day she's hosting a talk raising money for the Royal British Legion this evening (Thurs 8 May) called 'After VE-Day The Wartime Secrets Behind Famous Faces' using her knowledge of the war to bring stories of it to life.
Some of those include celebrities like German actress Marlena Dietrich, who worked for the Americans during the war, and local star David Niven, went to Stowe School. The actor was in propaganda films, but he also was part of the planning for the D-Day landings.
Philomena says she will also look at the role the county played:
" Northampton, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire were all to do with special Operations executive where they either trained agents to be dropped behind enemy lines and to help the resistance workers."
She says on this day in VE Day the celebrations were also poignant:
"There was a tinge of sadness behind it because some people weren't going to come back. And some people were going to come back to find members of their family had died.
"But at that moment in time they were celebrating, and it is part of our history."