Since 1994, we've marked the anniversaries of a number of critical moments in our history: the outbreak of the First World War, the Armistice, the D-Day Landings, and so on. And as the years pass, the number of people who remember those moments of conflict, of liberation, and of peace decreases -- and the events themselves will one day slip out of living memory and in to recorded history.
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In May 2020, across the country and around the world, we will commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day, when the guns fell silent across Europe, bringing to an end years of conflict and destruction on a massive scale. On that day in 1945, people took to the streets -- and filled the pubs -- to celebrate the peace and share their hope for the future.
While conflict carried on further east for a few more long months, VE Day marked the 'beginning of the end' and ushered in an era of peace and cooperation in Europe that we still enjoy today. The collective act of commemoration is an opportunity to reflect together, to remember the enormity of the sacrifice, and to celebrate with joy the peace we share.
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As part of the commemoration of VE Day in 2020, the 75th anniversary, we're putting together this collection of memories and photos of World War II from Tring residents. As veterans of the conflict themselves, and even their children, grow older, stories about the war and its effects at home are not always passed down to younger generations. This project is a chance to ask questions, share stories, and capture some of those memories -- whether first, second or even third hand -- before it is too late.
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We are asking local residents to tell us what they remember -- and to share the stories they may have been told by parents or grandparents. Not stories of Tring, necessarily, although there are people who remember life in our town during those years, but of the way the war reached into people's lives all around the world.
Our collection of some of these stories will, we hope, serve as a collective act of remembrance for Tring and its residents.
