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GALLERY: Kenilworth marks VJ Day 80

Local News by James Smith 15th Aug 2025  
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Around one hundred locals gathered at Kenilworth's war memorial this morning (August 15) to mark the 80th anniversary of VJ Day.

A short service and a minutes silence were both observed, with town clerk Maggie Field and Heath Alford, lay reader at St Nicholas Church, leading the service.

Bugler Edward Lawlor plaid both the last post and the national anthem.

Wreathes were laid by various local residents, organisations and groups.

Mayor of Kenilworth Cllr James Kennedy laid one on behalf of Kenilworth Town Council, followed by Lieutenant Colonel John Rice of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment which was stationed in India at the start of the Second World War.

Henry Woodgate laid a wreathe for the Royal British Legion, as did former Gurkha Ombahadur.

Miles Wyatt-Smith laid a wreathe on behalf of Children of Far East Prisoners of War and in memory of his grandfather Rupert Wyatt-Smith who was a prisoner in Singapore's Changi Prison.

Simon Gordon remembered his father Tony Gordon who fought in North Africa and then with the Chindits in Burma.

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Donna Curtis laid a wreathe in memory of her maternal grandfather George Hopkins who was in Darwin during the bombing raids and for her paternal grandfather Arthur Johnson who was captured in Singapore and forced to work on the Burma Railway.

Cllr Adrian Marsh laid the eight wreathe in memory of his father Thomas Marsh who served in Burma with the 14th army, and his great uncle Richard Milne who was captured in 1942 and forced to work on the Burma Railway.

Cllr Alix Dearing laid the final wreathe for the 82nd West Africa Division and he farther Gordon Truman.

Local residents were also invited to lay flowers at the memorial.

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