HAVING been born at Bournemouth in 1942, as a three-year-old, I still have the most vivid memories of the amazing VE Day party that took place in Bournemouth Square on May 8, 1945.

At dusk, my dear nurse, Mini, and I walked down Richmond Hill from the old Victorian house where we lived (1A Wimborne Road – now a small office block). We discovered the whole of the Square jam-packed with abandoned buses and hundreds and hundreds of wildly gyrating people – dancing, singing and generally letting go after six long years of fear and emotional repression.

Back then, of course, I did not fully understand the reasons for such exceptional behaviour, but I now realise that I had been given a unique opportunity to witness the final, frenzied conclusion of centuries of destructive national rivalry between the great powers of Europe.

The images of unrestrained happiness I saw on the faces of the merry makers in the centre of Bournemouth that night, will be with me for the rest of my days; and so also will be the act of great kindness of the old newspaper seller in the Square, who, at the end of the party, hoisted me into the paper rack on his bicycle, and wheeled me, a tired little boy, slowly home up Richmond Hill!

Long live peace and prosperity across our Continent!

JOHN SOANE

Built environment consultant, Bournemouth Civic Society, honorary consultant for the reconstruction of the historic centre of Dresden

Durley Gardens, Bournemouth