Pageantry, pride and processions

IT IS eight decades since Winston Churchill drew the curtain on war in Europe - before telling a huge crowd: "This is your victory."

- BY SIMON MURPHY

And next week Britain will commemorate VE Day's anniversary with characteristic pageantry.

Events will honour those who gave their lives to defeat fascism.

But they will also remind us, as a group of veterans has poignantly conveyed, that “to remember is also our best hope of avoiding it ever happening again”.

Here, we give you the rundown on what's happening...

MILITARY PROCESSION

On Bank Holiday Monday a procession of over 1,300 Armed Forces, uniformed services and young people will march to Buckingham Palace from Parliament Square.

At midday, Timothy Spall will read extracts from Churchill's VE Day speech. The actor played the legendary wartime PM in Oscar-winning film The King's Speech.

Then Second World War veteran Alan Kennett, 100, will formally start the procession after being passed the Commonwealth War Graves Torch for Peace by Air Cadet Warrant Officer Emmy Jones.

THE PROCESSION