Northamptonshire veterans to join service mark 80th VJ Day
They'll be attending the 80th anniversary service for Victory over Japan Day with the King and Queen at the National Memorial Arboretum.
Communities across Northamptonshire will mark 80 years since the end of the Second World War, with Victory in Japan (VJ) Day today (Friday 15 August), as local veterans take part in a special Royal British Legion national service alongside the King and Queen later.
North Northamptonshire Council will be taking part in the Lamp Light of Peace tribute, with lamps displayed at council offices in Corby, Thrapston, Kettering, Rushden and Wellingborough.
Local town and parish councils will be leading commemorative events in towns and villages across North Northamptonshire, bringing communities together in remembrance and reflection.
They'll also be events at war memorials today at Oundle, Rushden, Raunds, Stanwick, and Woolaston.
While VE Day (Victory in Europe) marked the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, many thousands of Armed Forces personnel were still engaged in fighting in the Far East. VJ Day marks the day Japan surrendered, on 15 August 1945, bringing the Second World War to a final close.
A national two-minute silence will take place at 12 noon on Friday 15 August, with everyone invited to take part. The official national tribute will be held at the National Memorial Arboretum, at Alrewas, near Lichfield, Staffordshire.
Two Northamptonshire veterans will be attending that event along with the King and Queen and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
102-year-old Edwin Habberley, from our county, who served with the Royal Air Force and 104-year-old Charlie Richards, from Kettering, who served in the Army will attend.
Mr Richards, one of the oldest veterans attending - who served in the 7th Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment, spent months behind enemy lines ambushing Japanese supplies and communications, all while pulling along reluctant mules and heavy equipment.
The 104-year-old said: "I am so proud to attend the RBL's national event, and I think it will be a really poignant moment for those of us left.
"I want to represent all those who saw action in the Far East and remember those who never made it home, including my best friend and comrade, Son Johnson, who was killed in action in Burma. It will be such a special day for me and my family."
They'll be joined by many other Second World War veterans in a service where King Charles is to vow that the service and sacrifice of Second World War heroes who fought and died in the Pacific and Far East will never be forgotten.
Around five million men and women served in the British Armed Forces during the Second World War, with millions more mobilised from countries including pre-partition India, Australia, Canada, and across the Commonwealth including African and Caribbean nations.
As part of wider commemorations, the Imperial War Museum continues to invite people to take part in its Letters to Loved Ones project – a moving tribute that collects and shares real letters exchanged between families and servicemen during the Second World War. You can read these personal reflections or submit your own on the official VE/VJ Day website.
We are also being encouraged to craft origami paper cranes, which have become a global symbol of peace. The crane is especially significant in Hiroshima, one of the cities devastated by nuclear attack during the war, where it has come to represent healing, hope, and remembrance.