Gwen Howe’s Story

Available for over a year

During World War Two, Gwen lived in Kemsing in Kent. Gwen was 11 when war broke out and throughout the war she kept a personal diary, which she has kept to this day. Gwen says her entry for VE Day illustrates how Kemsing celebrated, although she says it sounds very gruesome. The locals in Kemsing built effigies of Hitler and Mussolini and she remembers that her father (a butcher) stabbed Hitler. She says people were cheering and celebrating in the street and that the church bells were ringing throughout the day. Gwen recals going to the top of the hill in Kemsing and seeing the area lit up for the first time in years. Gwen reads the full extract from her diary for VE Day, Tuesday 8 May 1945. Image: Gwen then, and now