The Church Bells Rang!

Sylvia Armsby Remembers VE Day 80 Years Later

Today marks the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, and we honor the moment through the eyes of one of our own. Cathedral member Sylvia Armsby was just four years old when World War II began on September 3, 1939. Growing up in a London neighborhood, she lived right next to her elementary school.

“I remember when they dug up our playground to build an air raid shelter,” she shared. “We had drills all the time. We’d line up, walk in single file, and take our seats. The teachers were strict—if you acted up, you were pulled from the line and had to wait outside until the last seat was available.”

She spoke with Father Mark about what it was like to be a child in wartime. “The war took away my childhood,” she said simply. Like many children in Greater London, Sylvia was evacuated at the start of the war, sent away from the threat of bombings. She was fortunate to live with an aunt in South Wales, rather than being placed with strangers, as many children were; some were even sent overseas to places like Canada. “I stayed there for six months before my mother came to visit,” she recalled. “She could tell I wasn’t doing well, so she brought me home. I spent the rest of the war years with my parents.”

Throughout the war, Sylvia and her parents slept in a Morrison shelter—a steel-framed structure set up under their dining room table, designed to protect families during air raids. “Victory in Europe is a day I’ll always remember.” Sylvia was nine and three-quarters years old when peace finally came—“and three-quarters counts when you’re nine,” she added with a smile. “I finally got to sleep in my own bed again. I remember going into my parents’ bedroom, which overlooked the shelters in the school yard, and thinking that never again would I have to go in them!”

When Father Mark asked how she and her neighbors celebrated the war’s end, her reply was immediate: “The church bells rang!” Bells had been silenced during the war, reserved only to signal the terror of an invasion or boots on the ground. “To hear them peal again, all across the city—it was just glorious. To this day, the ‘Peace’ that we say every Sunday probably means a great deal more to me than to most.”

As Europe pauses to commemorate the 80^th Anniversary of VE Day, we’re grateful to Sylvia for reminding us what that day meant for those who lived through it—especially the children whose lives were shaped by its sacrifices and its hope.

~Nancy Purcell, Director of Marketing and Communications, with Sylvia Armsby