Memories of VE Day: ‘I was 8 years old and won the fancy dress competition’

Eighty-eight-year-old Russell Maynard was just a young boy when peace was declared across Europe in 1945, but the excitement and celebration in his North Devon village still stand out.

“I was eight years old,” Russell said. 

“As part of the VE Day celebrations – which I think didn’t actually happen until June – my mother made me a tailcoat and borrowed various other items so I could enter the fancy dress competition in Atherington.”

His costume impressed the judges.

“I won first prize, plus a special prize,” he said.

Russell was living at The White Hart in the village at the time.

“Mr Youings, who sold tobacco to my mother, gave us a genuine large cigar for my costume,” he added. 

“I ended up smoking it bit by bit when no one was around!”

His story offers a light-hearted glimpse into how rural communities celebrated the end of the Second World War in their own way. 

While VE Day itself was marked on 8 May 1945, many villages like Atherington held their events later, often combined with fundraising and community fêtes.