The Lord-Lieutenant attended a moving service at the Pier Head today to mark the 80th Anniversary of Victory over Japan and the end of the Second World War.
Cunard’s MS Queen Anne was berthed alongside, and with the Mersey Ferries and other ships along the river, marked the beginning and end of a two-minute silence with their whistles. Cunard’s “Queens” played a vital role during the War in transporting troops and afterwards in repatriations.
Many thousands of men, mostly surviving British military former Far East Prisoners of War and over a thousand former civilian internees were brought into Liverpool on repatriation ships between October and December 1945.
My thanks to the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Cllr Barbara Murray, Liverpool City Council and the Combined Authority for this service and those other services taking place across Merseyside today.
We will never forget the huge debt of gratitude we owe to all those who fought in the War against Japan.
Let us all do our best to ensure the lessons of that period are learned and that the World does not return to a time with such awful loss of life.
