I think it was one of the most memorable nights of my life.
Queen Elizabeth II in 1985, recalling VE Day
Tuesday 8 May 1945 was a busy day at Buckingham Palace. It began raining, but by the afternoon the sun had broken through the clouds. Newspaper and radio reports had all but confirmed the Allied victory in Europe, and a ceasefire had been declared the day before.
At 11am Changing the Guard took place as usual, a ceremony which had continued throughout the war, during which time the guards wore khaki rather than their dress uniforms. The Irish Guards mounted the new Guard at the Palace. Newspapers reported that already people were crowded ‘like ants on the base of the Victoria memorial’. In the Ballroom, the King was holding an investiture, awarding military medals including the Distinguished Service Medal and the Military Medal to more than 270 recipients. The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, arrived for lunch with the King, travelling in a civilian car. The crowds surrounding the Palace soon realised who was arriving and had to be held back by the police. At 2.40pm, following lunch, Churchill returned to 10 Downing Street. The route to Whitehall was held open to enable him to deliver his now-famous victory speech in a live broadcast at 3pm, confirming that victory had been won in Europe, although fighting continued in Asia.
That afternoon, the House of Commons attended a hastily arranged thanksgiving service in St Margaret’s, Westminster, while the House of Lords attended one in Westminster Abbey. St Paul’s Cathedral held twenty successive thanksgiving services for the public throughout the day.
The crowds outside the Palace, realising the King was no longer at lunch, started to chant ‘We Want The King’. King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret made the first of many balcony appearances that day at 3.11pm, immediately after the Prime Minister’s speech. The King was wearing the uniform of an Admiral of the Fleet and Princess Elizabeth wore her khaki uniform of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), which she had joined earlier the same year. Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret were both dressed in blue. The Royal Family’s appearance on the balcony was filmed by television cameras mounted on vans in the forecourt below and located at the Victoria Memorial.
The largest Royal Standard was raised from the Palace flagpole, the first time the flag had been used since King George VI’s coronation in 1937. The police estimated the crowds in the immediate vicinity of the Palace to be close to 100,000 people; central London was overflowing and groups also gathered down Piccadilly and at Trafalgar Square.
The King, Queen and Princesses made a further appearance together on the balcony at 4.15pm. An hour later, the King received Churchill for a second time, with members of the War Cabinet, for a formal audience in the Bow Room. At 5.30pm the Royal Family went out again onto the balcony, this time with the Prime Minister.
That evening, following another wave to crowds from the balcony, the King’s speech to the Empire was broadcast live at 9pm, after which the Royal Family stepped out onto the balcony for a fourth time.
Further east, two ATS personnel took two mobile anti-aircraft searchlights to St Paul’s Cathedral. They switched them on at 10.15pm, later saying:
This is the day we have been waiting for … this is the pleasantest job we have had.
The sight of the cathedral, a miraculous survivor with only minor damage from the Blitz, inspired the war artist Norma Bull’s painting St Paul’s Cathedral on Victory Night, which was acquired by Queen Elizabeth two years later.
You can can view the painting here.
At approximately 10.45pm, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret formed part of a small group from the Royal Household who left the Palace to join the celebrations. They stood in front of the palace gates and cheered for their parents. By this time, Queen Elizabeth had changed for dinner and was wearing a white evening gown, the King remaining in his naval uniform. Their final balcony appearance was at half past midnight, when the floodlights which had illuminated the front of Buckingham Palace were turned off.
The photograph at the top of this page shows the Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on VE Day. It was used as the King’s Christmas card in December 1945.
