80th Anniversary of Victory in Europe and Victory over Japan

Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town Excerpts

Friday 9th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town (Lab)]

My Lords, I am grateful for the opportunity to add a voice from one of the smaller corners of our national story; and I do so among so many moving and powerful speeches today, including from my noble friend the Minister and the impressive maiden speech from the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Peterborough, whom I look forward to working with again.

Eighty years ago, the world breathed again. After years of darkness, brutality and sacrifice, peace was declared in Europe. On VE Day, and later, on VJ Day, nations rejoiced, and lives broken by war began slowly to mend. I rise with a small personal thread woven into that greater tapestry.

My mother, whom some of you will know, and her family are from Guernsey, one of the beloved Channel Islands—the only part of the British Isles to endure occupation by German forces during the Second World War, as the noble Earl has already reminded us. In June 1940, my noble kinswoman, then less than a year old, was, with just 24 hours’ notice, bundled on to a boat leaving Saint Peter Port, along with half her family. The rest were either fighting abroad or chose to remain on the island and experienced, in some cases, including my own family’s, the occupying forces taking over their homes.

Nearly five years later, on 8 May 1945, Winston Churchill gave his famous address to the nation. Among his words were these simple but profound

“our dear Channel Islands … are also to be freed to-day”.

He was in fact a little premature. The islands would not be fully liberated until the following day, 9 May; a day that is celebrated every year in the Channel Islands and one that is also, by happy coincidence, my birthday.

Churchill’s words, though a day early, brought immediate hope to a people who had waited so long for freedom. What transpired between those two dates tells us stories of hardship, suffering and extraordinary resilience. For nearly five years, the islanders lived in harsh isolation. Rations dwindled to near-starvation levels; electricity failed; civilians resorted to eating candle wax and rose hips to stay alive; and the elderly died cold in their beds. Some were deported to internment camps, never to return. Yet amid hunger and fear, they showed quiet, unwavering resolve. They held fast to their community, their customs and their humanity, even as the war stripped so much else away.

Today, as we mark the 80th anniversaries, we remember not only the great battles and sweeping victories but the quiet heroism, the perseverance of civilians under occupation, the stubborn endurance of small communities far from the centres of power and the enduring spirit that kept hope alive through the darkest years. In these uncertain times today, I take hope from their example.

The liberation of the Channel Islands reminds us that freedom must never be taken for granted, and that even in the most isolated places, the ideals of liberty and justice burn just as brightly. We owe a debt of gratitude to all who fought, all who endured, and all who rebuilt. Their courage brought us our freedom. Our memory of them keeps that freedom alive.