Today we mark VE Day by sharing a page of Pamela, Countess Lytton’s (1874 -1971) diary from our archive to give us an idea of how it felt at that time.
Pamela was very active during World War Two in her voluntary roles for the County Nursing Association and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Knebworth House was used as a home for the Froebel Educational Institute during the war, a college for training female teachers whose training was based on Friedrich Froebel’s work on child development. Pamela and her husband Victor, Earl of Lytton, split their time between London and a house in Knebworth.
Whilst living in India, before her marriage to Victor, Pamela had been romantically involved with Winston Churchill, who at that time was a soldier in the British Army. Though she turned down his offer of marriage, the pair remained lifelong close friends.
Extracts from Pamela’s Diary:
Wednesday 2 May 1945 – It seems certain that Hitler is dead. Whether from a stroke as Himmler said or shot as Donitz says, remains to be known. Goebbels seems dead too. Goring vanished. Both Hitler and Mussolini dead. Their glitter tarnished & forever shamed. These great facts seem to matter little now. A year ago, the world would have shaken at the news – so much horror & squalid cruelty surrounds the war news.
Saturday 5 May 1945 – All the northern armies including Holland & Denmark have surrendered to Monty – Holland free at last! & Denmark too. Millions of soldiers lay down their arms. Thousands of prisoners released. Hitler’s body has not been discovered.
Sunday 6 May 1945 – The papers absorb one. Endless dramatic accounts & pictures of surrenders. V(ictory) D(ay) is very imminent. The Germans all want to surrender to the western allies & not to the Russians. It would indeed be grim to be a prisoner of the Soviets!
Monday 7 May 1945 – Ruby Lindsay’s adored son has been killed – what a cruel peace for her … Tomorrow is V. Day. Announcements are given out all day … The war with Germany is over. That is what we must believe & grow used to after nearly 6 years. (Ruby Lindsay’s son Timothy Peto, a Captain in the Scots Guards, was killed in action in Italy on 24 Apr 1945, aged 24.)
Tuesday 8 May 1945 – Victor & I lunched at the House of Lords … then we took our car to the big space outside the H of L & from it watched the vast & solid crowds in Parliament Square & down Whitehall … we heard Winston’s announcement well from our own car wireless. Perfectly worded. Then we went into the Abbey for a great Thanksgiving service. Very perfect. My darling Davina filled my heart – our two Johns gone & our hearts aching for them.
Then we stood, packed tight by the crowd outside St Margarets, to see the Commons come out, in order to see Winston … eventually we ate a high tea & all went to Buckingham Palace – privileged to be inside the gardens & we stood & heard the King’s broadcast & saw them all on their balcony while the great throng of people – a perfect English crowd – cheered & cheered. The Queen in white satin & tiara!
(Pamela’s daughter Davina was married to John, Earl of Erne, who was killed in action in June 1940. Pamela’s son John, Major Viscount Knebworth, was killed in action in July 1942.)
Thursday 10 May 1945 – I cannot believe or feel the war is over. Perhaps the habit of war has fastened on me & so it clings still.
Sunday 13 May 1945 – Winston gave a wonderful address on the radio – a fine summary of the whole war. A thanksgiving service in our church was very crowded. It was very hard to hear. “Behold we call them happy which endure.” For some the war is never over, but every soul is thankful & grateful for the end & proud to be English.
Notes:
Hitler was the dictator of Nazi Germany, styling himself ‘Führer und Reichskanzler’. He committed suicide on 30 April 1945.
Himmler was the former commander of the Schutzstaffel or SS (Protective Squadron), who controlled Nazi concentration camps. He committed suicide in British custody on 23 May 1945.
Dönitz was a German naval officer who briefly succeeded Hitler as German head of state.
Goebbels was Propaganda Leader of the Nazi Party. Following Hitler’s suicide, he and his wife poisoned their six children then committed suicide on May 1, 1945.
Göring was Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe. At the end of the war, he was arrested and convicted of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials. Hours before his planned execution he committed suicide.
Mussolini was the former dictator of Italy, taking the title ‘Il Duce’, and a supporter of Nazi Germany. He was overthrown in 1943 when Italy signed an armistice with the Allies. In 1945 he fled Italy but was captured by Italian partisans and shot on 28 April 1945.
Monty, Field Marshal Montgomery, was the commander of the Allies in North Africa and in the subsequent invasions of Italy and Normandy.
