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The Rushden Echo and Argus, 4th May, 1945, transcribed by Gill Hollis
Thanksgiving: The Rest Will Be Impromptu
The “Victory Break” so eagerly awaited throughout the free world will undoubtedly be the occasion of much spontaneous rejoicing at Rushden and Higham Ferrers. Much restraint marks the preparations of the local authorities, however, and thanksgiving is the keynote of the few arrangements they have made.
At Rushden a ceremony will be held at the Council Buildings within an hour or so of the peace declaration. As soon as the news is received the Council will meet and the flag will be hoisted. The townspeople in general are invited to gather in Newton-road for the National Anthem and a short speech by the Council Chairman (Mr. H. Waring).
Each place of worship will hold a thanksgiving service in the evening, the Council attending St. Mary’s, and children’s services will be held on the following morning.
Work will cease at the factories immediately on receipt of the news, and the following day will also be a holiday. Full wages will be paid.
Schools will dismiss their scholars at V-hour and the holiday will continue over the next day.
If the official announcement of the end of hostilities in Europe is not made until late in the day, the Council will carry out its ceremony on the following day.
Teachers’ Position
Rushden headmasters have notified the Urban Council that they cannot accept responsibility of mustering thousands of scholars for the peace-announcement ceremony. They have instructions from the County Education Office to dismiss the children when peace is declared and they take the view that the scholars should then come under parental control.
There is nothing in this course of action to debar the children attending with or without their parents but the headmasters have decided that possible revelry in the streets might be conducive to accidents if thousands of children were marched about and assembled with only a limited number of teachers in control.
The headmasters, in a type-written reply to a letter from the Clerk to the Council notifying them of the ceremony and inviting their co-operation, pointed out that they have a committee which could have been consulted before any arrangements were made.
Victory Parade
Arrangements for victory services at Rushden on Thanksgiving Sunday have been complicated by the Government’s suggestion that parades should be held.
The Ministers’ Fellowship have standing plans for a united service at the Ritz cinema on the appropriate Sunday evening. Now, however, the Council has to consider an official parade and also the fact that next Sunday is Hospital Civic Sunday at Rushden, with plans already made for a procession and Council visit to St. Mary’s Church.
The Clerk to the Council (Mr. T. I. Watts) was able to clear one point when he said: “We shall certainly have to arrange a parade. If by chance Thanksgiving Sunday should fall next Sunday we shall have to combine it with the Hospital Sunday civic service at St. Mary’s and augment the parade by getting the Service units to attend.”
Mr. Watts had no doubt that if Thanksgiving Sunday came later another parade would be arranged, but not in the evening, as in his view that would be too late in the day.
The ministers of the town have to consider how these new possibilities will affect their own arrangements, and they will meet and decide the matter as soon as the peace news comes through.
At Rushden some touches of colour are creeping into the scene, and a few shop windows have been decked out with festive material. It is an open secret that in every street flags and other decorations have been looked out – and in many cases ironed out – in readiness for the historic signal. There is no shortage of flags; thousands have been stored away since 1937, the Coronation year.
At 20, Windmill-road will be seen a tattered White Ensign, smoke-stained and shot through in several places. It is the battle-scarred flag of a motor torpedo boat in which one of Mrs. J. Shortland’s five sons – all in the Forces – fought at Cherbourg and elsewhere. Stoker Dick Shortland, the owner of the flag, is now serving off Yogu-Slavia.
The possibility of floodlighting St. Mary’s Church is being considered and some people think that communal street tea-parties might be arranged, as at the Coronation without too much difficulty.
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