ON MAY 8, 2015 Minchinhampton remembered the 70th anniversary of VE Day.

At 11.30 a short service of prayers and reflections was held in Holy Trinity Church led by the Ray Storey, the Minchinhampton RBL Branch Padre.

The names of those from the town who had died in WW2 were read out by the Branch President, Ken Bucknell; he had been bomber crew during the conflict.

After the service the congregation marched down to the War Memorial for the Dedication and laying of a wreath.

During both wars Minchinhampton had been a Flying Station and there are a number of War Graves in Holy Trinity churchyard of airmen who died whilst stationed there; these include Canadian and Australian Aircrew as well as from the RAF.

After laying the wreath at the Memorial some of the RBL members visited these war graves, and the Branch Chairman, Ian Ross, then laid a Poppy Cross at each of them.

Once this had been completed the members gathered at ‘The Kitchen’ in the town for a celebratory lunch.

This offered an opportunity for the older members to try and remember what it was that they had been doing on VE Day 70 years earlier.

For some this was a challenge, but they wouldn’t own up to whether this was due to recent memory loss or the more usual memory loss suffered by servicemen after a ‘heavy celebration’ at the time.