Artist born on VE Day shares memories of post-war years

Independent

08-05-2025

An artist who was born on VE Day has shared memories of growing up in the aftermath of the Second World War, when she resorted to drawing on walls amid paper shortages.
Victoria Crowe was born in Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, on May 8 1945 as her mother listened to the crowds out on the streets celebrating the end of the Second World War in Europe.
She said that while, of course, she does not remember the day, she has in a way 'carried the memory' throughout her life, because her parents named her Victoria Elizabeth.
The acclaimed artist, who is marking her 80th birthday on Thursday, will see her work celebrated in an exhibition titled Decades later this year.
She said: 'Obviously, I don't have any real memories of the 8th of May 1945. Just stories that my mum and dad told me – how my father was out celebrating while my mother was giving birth (men weren't allowed to attend births at that time) and how she could hear the crowds out on the streets during her labour.
'However, I have carried the memory of that day all my life, as my parents wanted my name, Victoria Elizabeth, to celebrate the ending of the war.'
The artist, who later made her home in Scotland, recalled the aftermath of the war permeating her childhood.
She said: 'I can still remember, from very early childhood, a shallow depression in the ground where the Anderson shelter had been, over which my mother would grow ridge cucumbers and nasturtiums as a sort of camouflage.
'Our garden was very near to an internment camp for Italian prisoners of war – my mother told me how she enjoyed their singing on Sunday mornings.
'My father would point up to part of the sky where 'dog fights' between British and enemy aircraft were clearly seen, so I was imagining what that would look like in the sky above my garden.'
She added: 'One of the most familiar and fascinating aspects for me was Boxer the canary, who we looked after for a great aunt.
'The canary was completely bald and had lost all his head feathers in fright from a bombing raid in Kingston – I don't think the great aunt survived.'
Ms Crowe did not let early challenges such as the difficulty of finding paper in the post-war years get in the way of developing her passion and talent for art.
She said: 'I think the biggest difference to my young life growing up after the war was that there was very little in the way of drawing paper, children's books, all that sort of thing, so I used to draw on the walls and on the backs of Christmas cards, birthday cards, envelopes – any scrap of paper I could get hold of.'
Ms Crowe, who lives and works between West Linton in the Scottish Borders and Edinburgh, studied at Kingston School of Art and later at the Royal College of Art in London.
In the late 1960s she moved to Scotland, where she began teaching at Edinburgh College of Art, and in 1970 her first solo exhibition was held at The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh.
Since then she has worked in partnership with the gallery for more than five decades and her new exhibition, Decades, will be presented there as part of the Edinburgh Art Festival this summer.
The artist was made an OBE for services to art in 2004 and her work is held in private and public collections, including National Galleries of Scotland.