How VE Day Was Celebrated 80 Years Ago in Guildford

Published on: 8 May, 2025
Updated on: 8 May, 2025

Eighty years ago, May 8, 1945, the Second World War in Europe ended.

VE Day was celebrated throughout Britain with street parties in villages, towns and cities alike.

See: The National Anthem being sung in Guildford High Street on May 8

In the days that followed there were services of thanksgiving for the end of hostilities.

Ten years ago, on the 70th anniversary of VE Day, The Guildford Dragon NEWS published a story with plenty of vintage photos, details and memories.

Click here to have a look at the 70th anniversary story.

The Dragon has now received an email from Terence Basting, who recalls a street party he enjoyed in Raymond Crescent, Dennisville, Guildford. He also has some photos, see below.

He writes: “The enclosed photographs are of Raymond Crescent. My mother and I lived at number 72, which is to the left of the table of the first photo.

“My father worked for Dennis Brothers pre-war and for a short time until 1946 when he re-joined the army and we left Guildford.

“I do remember some names from that time but I don’t recognise anyone in the photographs.

“Someone I suspect will recognise themself or one of the adults.

“Me? I’m the third child on the right in the second photo.”

VE Day street party at Raymond Crescent, Dennisville.

Terence Basting is seen third from right in this photo of the VE Day street party in Raymond Crescent.

Children enjoying their party food in Raymond Crescent while celebrating on VE Day.

The head of communications at the Diocese of Guildford, Rachel Tooze, has supplied some details of the role Surrey churches played in helping the community mark VE Day 80 years ago. It’s based on research from the Surrey History Centre as well as some of the churches’ own archives.

Rachel writes…. Churches made a significant contribution to the war effort in both the spiritual and practical sense.

Clergy of course offered spiritual guidance and comfort to congregants dealing with loss and uncertainty. They held national days of prayer to pray for victory and peace.

Indeed, many clergy served as chaplains in the armed forces.

On the practical side, churches were often used as makeshift shelters during bombing raids.

For example, according to Parochial Church Council (PCC) minutes from 1944, Holy Trinity on Guildford High Street, which was the Pro-Cathedral at the time, used the cellar of its parish halls as an air raid shelter, keeping people protected during the Blitz.

As seen today, part of the the storage space under Holy Trinity Church’s parish halls that was used as an air-raid shelter during the Second World War.

Today it’s used as a storage space and houses the church boiler, but looking at the space, it’s easy to envisage dozens of local people tightly huddled together as the sirens alarmed.

Clergy were not just supporting in their parishes however, many served on the front line.

The Surrey Advertiser and County Times reported on May 12, 1945, that the Revd E.W. Gedge, vicar of Christ Church, Guildford, was “given an enthusiastic welcome by parishioners”, as he returned from Germany where he had been held as a prisoner of war since 1940. The Mayor of Guildford also attended the homecoming, and the “Doxology was sang in thanksgiving”.

Cutting from the Surrey Advertiser and County Times, reporting the Revd E. W. Gedge, was home.

In anticipation of the war ending, a letter from the Mayor of Guildford, Wykeham Price, dated May 2, 1945, details King George VI’s expressed wishes that the “Sunday following VE Day should be observed as a day of thanksgiving and prayer with special services held throughout the country”.

In the letter reproduced below, the mayor accepts the pre-emptive invitation from the Cathedral Church of Holy Trinity on that Sunday.

The letter by the Mayor of Guildford, Wykeham Price, noting George VI’s expressed wishes that the “Sunday following VE Day should be observed as a day of thanksgiving and prayer with special services held throughout the country”.

Across the diocese, churches held numerous thanksgiving services – some held in hourly intervals such was the demand.

The Surrey Advertiser and County Times of May 12, 1945, included the headline “Leatherhead goes Gay”, which noted that “after the announcement, the church bells crashed out victory peals, and open-air services were held. At Leatherhead, clergy and ministers, with the combined choirs of Leatherhead Parish Church and All Saints’ Church, walked in a procession to the terrace of Elm gardens where a large crowd waited to take part in the service”.

The same edition of the newspaper referred to Godalming High Street being “ablaze with coloured streamers and Union Jacks”, and Godalming Parish Church being “almost filled” for the afternoon service of thanksgiving, which was attended by Mayor and Deputy Mayor. Milford Church’s thanksgiving service was similarly filled as was a thanksgiving service held on the cricket green.

A cutting from the Esher News and Advertiser references the thanksgiving service held at Esher Parish Church and West End Church, including a parade service with “several official bodies in uniform”.

The churches also held a collection to “fund the reconstruction of churches and church life in the formerly enemy-occupied countries of Europe”.

Another newspaper article reports that in “Woking a victory parade was held for Sunday’s service of thanksgiving”.

The parade featured various army and cadet regiments along with their bands to add to the celebratory tone. The vicar of Christ Church Woking, the Revd J. Clifford Banham, led the service and was joined on the platform by the Bishop of Guildford.

Bishop John Macmillan.

The Rt Revd John Macmillan, Bishop of Guildford, wrote a letter (published in the Surrey Advertiser and County Times) to the diocese in anticipation of VE Day.

In it he reminds people that the war in the Far East is yet to be finished. He also appeals for people to, “think once more of the chasm of suffering and moral degradation which has yawned before us during these years…. It is the knowledge and love of our God made a constant part of lives, which alone can make good the day of victory when it comes”.

The Rt Revd Andrew Watson, Bishop of Guildford.

The current Bishop of Guildford, the Rt Revd Andrew Watson, said he was especially moved to read the Bishop’s letter to the Surrey Advertiser.

“His threefold response to the forthcoming VE Day could be summarised as gratitude, seriousness and faith: gratitude for all who had given of their best during the conflict (from politicians and war heroes through to ‘some simple woman who has never lost her courage’); seriousness about the horrors of war and the challenges that lay ahead; and faith in the knowledge and love of God, which needed to be communicated to the next generation like never before.

“Eight decades, and eight Bishops of Guildford later, I have taken these same three themes for my sermon at the County Service at Guildford Cathedral on Sunday, May 11: remembering with gratitude people I knew (my grandparents among them) who acted with extraordinary courage over those years; recognising the seriousness of this anniversary, not least at a time when an escalation of war in Europe has seldom looked more likely; and emphasising the role of faith in inspiring hope and a vision that goes beyond our own little world and even our own little lifetime.

“As we seek, in St Paul’s words, to ‘make the most of every opportunity’, it’s my hope and prayer that this anniversary would help to draw many people to the themes so deftly spelt out by my episcopal predecessor.”