Durham County Record Office: the official archive service for County Durham and Darlington
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Exhibitions
- 'Adventurers and Pirates' - Hetton Coal Company, 1820
- Looking back at Consett Steel Works
- Celebrating Gala Day 2020
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County Durham remembers VE Day 1945
- 'We have come through' - Remembering VE Day 1945
- 9th Battalion DLI: From D-Day to Berlin
- 9th Battalion DLI: VE Day
- 9th Battalion DLI: In Berlin, June - September 1945
- Berlin Victory Parade, 7 September 1945
- Victory Parade at Belsen, 8 May 1945
- The Northern Echo, Victory edition, 9 May 1945
- VE Day and Durham Schools
- 2nd Battalion DLI: Burma 1945
- 2nd Battalion DLI: Rangoon Victory Parade, 15 June 1945
- VE Day and the Durham Miners' Association
- County Durham celebrates VE Day
- Haswell Victory Celebrations, 1945
- Soldier: Victory Souvenir edition, 8 May 1945
- Parade: European Victory edition, 26 May 1945
- VE Day not forgotten by one Spennymoor family
- County Durham celebrates VJ Day
- Victory Day, 8 June 1946
Children Back in England
The families of soldiers and officers travelled with the battalion. So when the battalion was sent home, the families came home too. Life in England was very different from life in India and for the children it was often quite a shock. Most of them had never been to England before, only heard stories about it.
Here's another extract from Hubert McBain's account of his childhood. Let's see what he thought of England:
If you can't read the text in image, see a Transcript of D/DLI 7/426/4 (page 5).
Try to answer these questions:
- What did he think England would be like?
- What did he not like about England?
- Where did they spend their time outside of school?