James Little

James Little remembers singing and Churchill “shedding buckets of tears”

I was a choir boy at St Margaret’s, Westminster on VE Day, singing at the church. Parliament Square was heaving with people, there were people on lampposts and all the way up Whitehall. It was incredible! 

I was there when Churchill led the war cabinet across for the Thanksgiving service, it was very ceremonial with police clearing the way. I saw Clement Atlee – who led a successful Labour government, Aneurin Bevan – founder of the NHS, Stafford Cripps – the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Churchill seemed like a giant to me and he was shedding buckets of tears. 

Canon Don led the service. He’d officiated at the wedding of the Queen and Prince Phillip. He was also my referee when I joined the Army – which was within a year of VE Day when I was 14. The atmosphere on VE Day was fantastic – relief and celebration. All nationalities were there – Brits, Americans, Dutch, New Zealanders…