VE Day 80 celebrated in style at Hertfordshire care home

A care home in Hertfordshire proudly welcomed the community to join residents and their relatives for a joyful and nostalgic celebration marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

Care UK’s Knebworth, in Woolmer Green, pulled out all the stops to commemorate the poignant anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe, hosting a 1940s-themed street party with live entertainment from clarinet musician Sally Frost.

Guests also enjoyed an afternoon of tasty food prepared by the home’s talented chefs.

Knebworth residents Eric Young, 95, and his wife Gwendoline, 93, were both evacuated as children during the war, though their journeys were very different.

Reflecting on the time, Eric said: “I was evacuated to Vancouver in 1940 at the age of 10 from my hometown of Inverurie, Scotland. The bus collected the evacuees in Edinburgh and passed through Glasgow, picking up others on the way. We boarded a ship to Montreal, which took 2-3 weeks to cross the Atlantic, and I suffered with seasickness on the journey. We then travelled by train for four days to Vancouver, where I lived with my aunt and uncle.”

Meanwhile, Gwendoline was evacuated at the age of eight from her home in Hampstead, north London, and was relocated to the village of Caddington, Bedfordshire.

Daniel Grab, Home Manager at Knebworth, said: “We had a wonderful time celebrating VE Day 80 with residents, their families and the Knebworth community. Everyone was in high spirits as we marked this momentous occasion, but we also took time to reflect on the poignancy of the milestone.

“It was a privilege to honour this important anniversary and to see the residents enjoying the music, food and company of the community as they shared their memories of times gone by. It’s so important to enable residents to foster meaningful connections with the local community and for us to host nostalgic events that can prompt reminiscence, so our VE Day celebration was a roaring success.”   

Knebworth is a state-of-the-art care home that provides full-time residential, nursing, and dementia care, as well as short-term respite care. The care home incorporates plenty of space for leisure activities and hobbies, and includes its own hair and beauty salon, pub and café.