{"id":78040,"date":"2025-05-06T02:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T02:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/78040\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T02:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T02:52:10","slug":"veterans-and-families-to-attend-veday-80th-anniversary-commemorations-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/78040\/","title":{"rendered":"Veterans and families to attend VEDay 80th anniversary commemorations \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Second World War veterans will be among those attending a special concert for Scotland\u2019s national commemoration of the 80th anniversary of VE Day.<\/p>\n

Scotland\u2019s Salute: VE80 concert takes place on Tuesday evening at Edinburgh\u2019s Usher Hall, two days ahead of the anniversary of VE Day on May 8, which marked the end of the the war in Europe.<\/p>\n

Charities Legion Scotland and Poppyscotland will host an evening of music from a number of performers, which will be enjoyed by former members of the forces and their families.<\/p>\n

Scotland\u2019s First Minister John Swinney will also be among those at the event which will feature first-hand testimony from surviving Scottish VE-Day veterans on the big screen.<\/p>\n

\"Direct<\/a>\"Police<\/a><\/p>\n

Music will include performances from Fife singer songwriter Cammy Barnes, who will join the Band of His Majesty\u2019s Royal Marines Scotland and the Band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, and from singer Amy Hawthorn, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra violinist Iona McDonald, and Scottish actor Nicholas Ralph.<\/p>\n

Among those in the audience will be Cath Drummond, who was told her husband of 10 months was missing and presumed dead on August 25 1944, following a plane crash.<\/p>\n

As well as losing the man she loved, she was eight months pregnant and faced a life as a single mother.<\/p>\n

\"CathCath Drummond lost her husband during World War II. <\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI remember that telegram arriving like it was yesterday. I screamed the place down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was absolutely heartbroken and didn\u2019t see how I would get through it. It was a real sense of fear raising a child alone, with no money or help.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1944, aged 18, George MacLeod was called up to the King\u2019s Own Scottish Borderers 52nd Division, 4th Battalion.<\/p>\n

He spent the majority of his service in Germany as a driver but recalls a harrowing experience in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Mr MacLeod, of Edinburgh, said: \u201cI remember at one point being in Ireland and we had to put on a white uniform and go and lie in the snow, but they forgot about us and we nearly froze to death. I had to go to hospital as I had frostbite.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GeorgeGeorge McLeod, who served during WWII, is to attend the VEDay celebrations. <\/p>\n

Margaret Landels signed up to the Royal Navy at 18 years old after walking along George Street in Edinburgh, where she saw a We Need You recruitment poster.<\/p>\n

She was later posted to Lowestoft in Suffolk, where she was a leading Wren within the Post Office for two years.<\/p>\n

On VE Day, 1945, She remembered hearing that the war had ended on VE Day 1945, celebrating with her peers upon hearing the news.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cSome people had a band, and we had a dance along South Queensferry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking in the days before the concert Mr Swinney paid tribute to previous generations for their sacrifices.<\/p>\n

He previously said: \u201cWe owe a great debt of gratitude to all those who served our country throughout the Second World War, especially to those who made the ultimate sacrifice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWere it not for the actions of the brave men and women who helped to liberate Europe 80 years ago, we might not enjoy the freedoms we take for granted today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis week and always, we remember them with pride and offer our heartfelt thanks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Second World War veterans will be among those attending a special concert for Scotland\u2019s national commemoration of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,7852,37807,712,16,15,10005,38217,14531],"class_list":{"0":"post-78040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-john-swinney","12":"tag-memorial","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-usher-hall","17":"tag-veday","18":"tag-wwii"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114458627082768050","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}