PEOPLE in St Austell are being asked for memories of Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) and Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day).

This year sees the 80th anniversary of both days which marked the end of Second World War hostilities in Europe in May 1945 and then the Far East in August of the same year.

St Austell Library and Salsa (St Austell Library Support Association) will be staging an exhibition about life in the town as the long years of war came to an end.

People are being asked to write down memories and provide photographs for the library to copy. The library also intends to record people’s memories.

After the material has featured in the exhibition, it will be held as part of the record of bygone days in the town.

The VE Day and VJ Day commemorations will also co-incide with the library’s 65th anniversary celebrations.

A spokesperson said: “People can pop in to the library or ring 0300 1234111. The email address is staustell.library@liscornwall.org.uk

“Our plans include purchasing a peace lamp to be lit on VE Day, May 8, and the planting of a peace rose. The library’s 65th birthday falls on June 6 and VJ Day is on August 15.

“We will be inviting local schools to visit the library to find out about a time that was so different from now.

“The good people of St Austell purchased a Spitfire, R7116 for 140 Squadron, during the war. If anybody has a photograph of this Spitfire we could copy for the display, we would be very grateful. The library in partnership with the Royal British Legion will be hosting an event on May 8.”

The library’s appeal for information prompted me (Voice journalist Andrew Townsend) to recall that my uncle, Harold Trevan, had been evacuated to the St Austell area from war-torn Plymouth.

Harold moved with his school, Sutton High School for Boys, which spent four years in St Austell. The boys and the staff became part of life in the town and were missed when they returned home in the summer of 1945.

Harold, as a 16-year-old, recorded his memories before leaving for home.

He wrote: “What I shall remember most, in the years to come, of my evacuation period will be the friendships that I have made…

“The first friends I made were those good people who took another boy and myself to live with them on that fateful day in May 1941. The first thing they did for us was to give us a hot meal. As we had had nothing solid since early in the morning, this meal sowed the first seeds of a lasting friendship.”

Harold told of the friendships he later made while at the evacuees’ sick bay at the Grove in Charlestown.

His third set of friends were from Mount Charles Methodist Church, which he had attended. He said: “The fellowship that I have enjoyed in their company has helped me through some of the difficult times that I have experienced.”