9th May 1945 - VE Day Celebrations

Wednesday

Warm.  Showers at times.  

The great victory parades in the Park this morning.  Hymns being sung.  Saw they came back to the Bridge.  Big crowds on the pavements.  The Town Council came, some in a taxi and some walking, the police officers and the Mayor’s Beadle with the mace.  They all stood on the steps of the Clarkson Memorial and a man took photos.  The band stood alongside.  The sun shone just after a shower, and the band of the cadets came through the High St, with the young drum-major striding in front, and behind him a tiny boy with a huge mastiff, as the “regimental mascot”.  Then the Home Guard, aged, fat, thin, grey, shambling, plenty of officers.  The Civil Defence – Penny and his man in front, Jones and the heavy rescue men, ambulance men, nurses, sea-cadets, girl cadets, Women's Voluntary Service, even fireguards in uniform (never seen anything like this before) and curious grey uniformed girls of the Salvation Army looking like camp followers of the Civil War.  Boys and Girls Life Brigades and tiny children in various uniforms. 

As each platoon or group drew level with the Clarkson Memorial, an officer or leader would call “Eyes Right” in ranging tones of military volume and the Mayor solemnly lifted his cocked hat.  Incredible how many Home Guards and Civil Defence people there are in this small town.

Going through old market, met a man leading two thoroughbreds and wheeling a bicycle.  Helped him round to Hancroft Road where he turned them out.

To Museum, finished Townsend case, which now looks very well.  Letter from Miss Peckover in answer to mine of yesterday to say she will serve as President again.

Crowds outside all the fish shops, waiting for the usual Fenland dinner.

Went to Warby’s this evening.  Elm bells ringing, St George’s flag waving on tower, flags on most of cottages.  Glorious evening, clear washed skies, one or 2 Lancasters sailing over, I suppose full of released prisoners.  The cuckoos calling, distant cattle lowing.

Saw the German camp at Waldersey, the men playing football with a big crowd, and a cottage opposite covered with flags.  

Back to Oldfield at 8.30, cuckoos still calling.  Down Elm Rd, chestnuts full of gigantic candles, cuckoos, wood pigeons and rooks cawing ceaselessly.  Crowds coming out of the town from the “celebrations”.

*****

Seventy years after the end of the Second World War, this is the last diary entry for E.J. Rudsdale's wartime blog.  I would like to sincerely thank all of you who have followed the blog over nearly six years and particularly those who have contributed comments and insights, which have enhanced the blog and my knowledge of this period considerably.  Special thanks to regular contributors Mike, (who has given us such useful information on monetary values from the time), Jane and Robin.

The publication of the blog has enabled E.J. Rudsdale's journals to reach a worldwide audience and has allowed greater detail from his diaries to be published beyond that which it was possible to include in the book, 'E.J. Rudsdale's Journals of Wartime Colchester'.

The blog has made many connections for people researching their Essex family history in this period and it has been a joy to receive details of your stories and research in this regard.

I hope to publish E.J. Rudsdale's peacetime journals for Colchester from 1920 to 1939 and for Wisbech from 1945 to 1951 in the future and details will be published on this website at a future date.

Thank you again for your loyal support and kind encouragement.  It has been a great pleasure to share E.J. Rudsdale's experiences of the Second World War with you.

With best wishes, 

Catherine Pearson

9th May 2015

Afterword: E.J. Rudsdale after the Second World War

E.J. Rudsdale continued to serve as Curator and Librarian at Wisbech Museum up to the late 1940s.  His father, John Rudsdale, died in 1946.  Rudsdale, himself, never married.  In 1949, Rudsdale was appointed Consultant Archaeologist at Scarborough Museum for nine months but was hampered by poor health and subsequently resumed his post at Wisbech.  Throughout the rest of his life, Rudsdale continued to maintain his journal on a regular basis.  He also kept in close contact with events in Colchester through friends such as Hervey Benham and Harold Poulter.  (Poulter continued to live at Hollytrees Museum until his death in 1962).  Rudsdale published articles on the history of Colchester in the Essex Review in the post-war years and became a founder member of the Friends of Colchester Museums in 1949.  In November 1951, he underwent an emergency operation for appendicitis but died of kidney failure on 14 November 1951, at the early age of 41.  His journals were later bequeathed to Essex Record Office.  The inscription on his tombstone in Wisbech Cemetery states: ‘He studied and preserved antiquities’. 

Shocked by the news of his death, his friends in Colchester raised sufficient funds for a museum display case to be purchased in his memory and his name is commemorated in the naming of a road, Rudsdale Way, in the Prettygate district of the town.  Rudsdale, himself, however, had more modest ideas of a memorial.  Lying ill with bronchitis in 1949, he re-wrote his will and, with thoughts of Colchester Castle, stated that after his debts had been settled:

'Any residue to Colchester Corporation with the request that they shall place a small tablet in the Castle Tower, as follows:

In Memory

Of

E.J. Rudsdale, 1910-19??

Who loved Colchester

Here he liked to stand on a

Summer afternoon'

It is hoped that his wishes for such a memorial may one day be realised.