VE Day: Resident reveals photograph showing how Widley residents celebrated the end of the Second World War

Maureen Gatehouse was just four years old when her mother organised a fancy dress party for the children of Hillside Avenue and the surrounding area, with more than 100 children taking part in the celebration

Maureen, who now lives in Basingstoke, said: ‘I’m the nurse in the front row with my hands together – I remember it was a great fancy dress party and we had a big street party in the afternoon.

‘We were a close-knit community – we knew everyone in the community.’

The community had borne the brunt of German bombing raids throughout the war, with incendiary bombs dropped across Widley and Purbrook in 1941, and dashing to the family’s air raid shelter remains a vivid memory for the 79-year-old.

She said: ‘My most vivid memory of the war is going down into the air raid shelter.

‘But I also remember when all the soldiers went off on D-Day, the army trucks parked in the avenues around our road.

‘All the ladies of the area came by with cups of tea for them.’

Maureen’s father served in an artillery regiment based in Somerset, before being killed by an accident at the base in 1941.

The effects of the war stayed with her mother long after it finished, according to Maureen.

She said: ‘Because my mother was a war widow she lived by a make-do-and-mend attitude.

‘She was a good mother – but very reserved.’

Maureen decided to find the photograph to share it with her four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, aged from one to four, in time to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the historic day.

She said: ‘I got the photo out because I wanted my grandchildren and great-grandchildren to see what I was like when I was four years old.

‘Life was very different then – we used to play in the streets and roam the countryside without any trouble.’

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