At the Martha Trust in Hacklinge last Wednesday, staff and residents paid tribute to those who saw active service after receiving a letter from the Royal British Legion, asking for support for the VE Day celebrations.

Graham Simmons, Chief Executive said:

“Although none of our staff or clients were about at the time, we decided that we would like to say thank you to these brave servicemen and women, and to celebrate the peace they won for us and our families.  We decided to hold a street party and invited the Mayoress and Deputy Mayor to join our celebrations, but due to the inclement British weather this was held indoors!  To get into the spirit of 1945 all our residents and staff had great fun dressing in clothes appropriate to that time.  Anne Platt, our cook, made all the food using traditional wartime recipes and ingredients.  We dined on a feast of wartime fare which included such delights as pilchard paste sandwiches, soda bread, and cakes using dried eggs, and I have to say they all tasted surprisingly good.  Luckily for us she didn’t include the all time family staple of bread and dripping! 

Jenny Bushell, one of our support workers reflected: “It was really strange tasting all the different food but it’s amazing how much fun people had back then, even though, in monetary terms they had very little”.