logo
Special guests join VE Day 80 celebrations at Edinburgh care home

Special guests join VE Day 80 celebrations at Edinburgh care home

An Edinburgh care home welcomed the community to join residents and their relatives for a celebration marking the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
Care UK's Murrayside, on South Beechwood, pulled out all the stops to commemorate the poignant anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe in 1945, hosting 1940s-themed festivities including a lively performance from Sarah Sings, who provided the perfect atmosphere for a dance to vintage tunes.
Mary Smith, 103, a former Navy servicewoman, said: 'On VE day I was in the middle of the ocean, it was the first time we sailed with any lights on!
'I helped light the lamp of light on the balcony this morning, and it's been a really special day for us all.'
Suzanne Welsh, Home Manager at Murrayside, said: 'We had a fantastic time celebrating VE Day 80 with residents, their families and the wonderful Edinburgh community. Everyone was in high spirits as we marked this momentous occasion, but we also took time to reflect on the poignancy of the milestone.
'It was a privilege to honour this important anniversary and to see the residents enjoying Sarah's performance, delicious food and the company of the community as they shared their memories of times gone by. It's so important to enable residents to foster meaningful connections with the local people and for us to host nostalgic events that can prompt reminiscence, so our VE Day celebration was a roaring success.'
Murrayside care home, which provides full-time residential, nursing and dementia care, has been specially designed to support residents in living active and fulfilling lives, while also promoting independence. The care home incorporates plenty of space for leisure activities and hobbies, and has its own cinema, hair and beauty salon, café and namaste rooms.
To find out more about Murrayside, please contact Customer Relations Manager Cliona Robertson on 0131 516 2487 or email cliona.robertson@careuk.com
careuk.com/murrayside
Team member Gemma McInnes, resident Pat Wood, and team member Sheena Yallop and resident Pauline Travers
Like this:
Like

Related

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

War film breaks viewers hearts - 'I've never sobbed so hard in my life'
War film breaks viewers hearts - 'I've never sobbed so hard in my life'

Edinburgh Live

time2 days ago

  • Edinburgh Live

War film breaks viewers hearts - 'I've never sobbed so hard in my life'

Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Over 15 years since its release, audiences are finding it hard to let go of The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, as they continue to label the film "absolutely devastating". Asa Butterfield delivers a stirring performance as an eight-year-old boy in The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, unfolding amidst the terrors of the Second World War. Adapted from John Boyne's novel, the drama is fiercely set within the confines of Nazi-invaded Poland and dares to present an emotionally charged narrative that reduces viewers to tears. One Rotten Tomatoes critic expressed: "Such a heartbreaking story about love, friendship, and the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust. Other than Schindler's List, I've never sobbed so hard in my life." Launched onto screens in 2008, the cinematic piece stars the actor well-known from Netflix's Sex Education as young Bruno, whose father's an SS officer whose new post requires the family to relocate to Poland. On a day filled with curiosity, Bruno encounters a concentration camp, which he naively assumes is a farm beyond his back garden; a place his mother strictly prohibits him from visiting. In a bout of defiance, Bruno slinks into the forest where he confronts a barbed wire fence enclosing the camp. At this border, he befriends Smuel, another youngster of his age, sparking a clandestine camaraderie, reports the Express. Day after day, Bruno sneaks away to see Smuel across the fence, gifting him bits of food. Eventually, Bruno comes to realise that his newfound chum is Jewish, having been brought to the camp with his parents. A review says: "This movie had me in tears after knowing the plot of it. It breaks my heart seeing the plot twist of the story. Seeing that Bruno was sorry and wanted to help Shmuel but ended up in a twisted fate, it awfully does break my heart. I'd definitely say this is a must watch movie if you badly want to cry." Another viewer remarked: "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a masterpiece. Highly absorbing and moving film. It makes me cry every time I watch it. Absolutely love it. One of my all-time favourites. It is one of those movies that goes straight to the heart." Nonetheless, amidst praises, the film has not been without its detractors who criticise its historical portrayal. A critique reads: "The story is exactly what comes out when a daydreaming, ignorant filmmaker tries to invent a cliché Holocaust drama in his own Hollywood bubble." It's important to acknowledge the significant role the children's novel and subsequent film adaptation have played in Holocaust education for youngsters. Holocaust educator Michael Grey notes that well over half of British Year 9 students (ages 13-14) engage more deeply with The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas than The Diary of Anne Frank. For those bracing themselves for an emotional cinema experience, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime.

Fake documents planted on dead body tricked Hitler and won World War 2
Fake documents planted on dead body tricked Hitler and won World War 2

Daily Mirror

time2 days ago

  • Daily Mirror

Fake documents planted on dead body tricked Hitler and won World War 2

The daring plot, in which a homeless man's corpse was planted in the sea to fool Hitler into changing tactics, has gone down in history. But until now no-one knew how important was the role of MI5 secretary Hester Leggatt It's one of the most incredible stories of the Second World War, when a dead body carrying fake documents tricked Hitler and hastened the Allied victory over Nazi Germany. Operation Mincemeat's backstory is now being told in a smash hit West End and Broadway musical. ‌ And its British star, Jak Malone, 30, has just won a Tony Award, stage acting's highest accolade, for playing a woman - M15 secretary Hester Leggatt - whose importance in the daring plot has only recently come to light. ‌ After collecting his award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor on Sunday, the Liverpudlian star, whose mother was a nurse and father worked in a soap factory, gasped: 'I am hovering above my body experiencing this, watching this happening.' Like most people, Jak didn't know much about Hester when he agreed to the role in 2019, but is now a huge fan, even writing the foreword to a new book I co-authored about her, Finding Hester. In it, he admitted that he agreed to the role because he knew she was just a secretary who didn't play a big part in the plot, so playing her 'would likely give me more opportunity to play additional supporting roles.' But that all changed a few years later when a group of fans of the musical dug up new information, putting Hester at the centre of the daring operation. 'It's an incredible story that I still have trouble believing myself,' Jak said. 'A group of individuals who pull off the unthinkable - a moment in history that truly deserves to shine.' It was in 1943 that the Germans thought they'd got their hands on a briefcase full of British military secrets concerning the impending Allied invasion of Sicily. But it was all a ruse. ‌ The documents had been created by MI5 to deliberately mislead Axis forces, and they'd sold the whole thing by planting the briefcase on a corpse they'd dressed up like a British pilot. To make it as believable as possible, they had created a whole life for this man, including giving him a fictional fiancée called Pam. The corpse carried both a photograph of 'Pam' and two love letters from her. ‌ The believability of this manufactured life was vital - if the Germans saw through the ruse, dubbed Operation Mincemeat, it would make it clear that the information in the documents was false and give them the advantage they needed in the upcoming battle. Pam's love letters could make or break the invasion plans - they needed to be perfect. Plenty is known about the men behind Operation Mincemeat, but far less information has endured about the women who helped enact it. Jean Leslie, a secretary at MI5, was remembered as being the face of Pam in the photograph included in the briefcase, but the woman who wrote the letters faded into obscurity. ‌ In his 2010 book on the operation, Ben Macintyre cites an interview with Leslie towards the end of her life that identifies this second woman as 'Hester Leggett' and, for the next 13 years, that was almost all that was known about her. Leslie also remembered her as a spinster, leading to assumptions that she was an older woman. ‌ In the 2021 Operation Mincemeat film based on Ben's book, she's in her 70s. When writing group SpitLip penned the musical, they made her 49. She wasn't 70. She wasn't even 49. Hester was 37 when she wrote the love letters so integral to Operation Mincemeat. In 2023, a group of fans of the West End musical embarked on a mission of their own, unearthing Hester's story from the history books by correcting a misspelling of her surname. ‌ Hester Leggett didn't exist, but Hester Leggatt did. They tracked her through archival records, electoral rolls, newspapers and beyond, eventually getting in touch with her nearest living relatives. Hester hadn't spoken much about her war work, so many of them had no idea she'd ever worked for MI5 and had only met her briefly, if at all, towards the end of her life so couldn't supply much further information. One thing they could provide, however, was a box discovered amid paperwork in need of tidying. It was a fairly innocuous box, but it had Hester's name on it. ‌ Inside what was once a department store shipping box was a time capsule so perfectly suited to the research in question that it was like Hester had carefully parcelled it up knowing it would one day be needed for this very purpose. Two diaries, including one from the year of Operation Mincemeat, and hundreds of letters were neatly tucked away inside. The research into Hester had set the record straight when it came to her age, but it hadn't been able to entirely disprove the idea of her as the embittered spinster who never knew love. ‌ It was certain that she never married or had children, and archival records aren't typically the place to find more private details of someone's life, but this box was a direct insight into her personal life. Hester herself had left irrefutable evidence that she had been the perfect person at MI5 to write love letters to a soldier, because she'd written hundreds of them herself, and this recipient had been real. The object of Hester's affections was Valdemar Bertie Caroe, known to her as Val. Based on the date of their anniversary as noted in Hester's diary, their relationship began on November 25, 1939. ‌ She wrote frequently to him when he was posted in Northern Ireland as an army liaison to MI5, and when he was later stationed in France. Her letters reveal her to very much be acting in the role of his wife, concerned with his wellbeing as she wrote 'I do hope you have enough warm things with you. Let me know if I can get anything for you, or if you would like me to knit you another sweater.' ‌ In addition to warm clothing she also sends copies of the newspaper for Val to read, and fusses, albeit from a distance, when she knows he's unwell: 'How is your cold, darling my dear - have you really got rid of it? I do wish I could look after you.' Hester also shares frequent gossip with Val, concerning characters they're both familiar with from their work at MI5: 'Max K has recently married a girl called Susie Barnes who was at Oxford, in the Registry, I think, and there is some difference of opinion as to who has made a Big mistake. 'So there you have a nice cross-section of office gossip to take your mind off your troubles.' ‌ She had strong opinions about the right way to write love letters - something that would serve her well when writing Pam's as part of Operation Mincemeat - and would chide Val when he wasn't meeting her expectations. 'I don't think that I need explain to you the kind of letters I like to get from you - you used to know how to write them all right,' she wrote. 'You know, quite well, that I never find your letters dull - only rather unsatisfying sometimes. ‌ 'It would be rather nice to know if you are missing me + looking forward to seeing me + what you are planning for us. Do I really have to tell you all this?' This was all, finally, evidence to dispel the bitter and unloved myth that still clung to Hester. But her love story, like Pam's, didn't end happily. Val was married to another woman and had been since 1926. According to the 1939 Register, he and his wife were still living together in September 1939, just two months before the day Hester cited as their anniversary. ‌ The exact nature of Val and Hester's relationship is unclear. If they were a secret at all, they were an incredibly open one. Hester's diary mentions them going out for meals together with other MI5 employees, and friends so distant that she couldn't remember their names once asked her to pass on their regards to Val. Divorce was possible at the time, but not easy - although Val's wife would have had more than enough evidence to support a petition for divorce on the grounds of adultery if she sought one. Continuing on the way she was, as an unmarried woman in a relationship with a married man, had the potential to end poorly for Hester. And some of the last letters in the box suggest this as the reason their relationship came to an end. ‌ She talks rather vaguely, but her words can be read as a desire to formalise their relationship, something it seems she had promised to put off until after the war but could no longer ignore. She wrote: 'It's fairly easy for you to cope with these things, but of course it's quite difficult for me and my dear I think we must try and do something about it as soon as possible. ‌ 'Now the war here is over and I have kept my promise to not say anything more about it till then, though it has often been very difficult in many ways […] I can't go on like this much longer, so do write to me as soon as you can and tell me that you are making some plans for us.' Considering the role of the war in delaying any advancements in her relationship with Val, one has to wonder whether one particular line in Pam's letters came from somewhere very personal 'Darling, why did we go & meet in the middle of a war, such a silly thing for anybody to do,' she wrote. ‌ Val did not divorce his wife. When he died in 1960, he left everything to her, suggesting they still had some kind of relationship. Although there is no clear proof, it seems like Hester's relationship with Val ended in 1945 after he could not, or would not, be the husband she wanted. Regardless, the collection of Hester's letters reveal her to have spent the war very much in love, even if it was potentially against her better judgement. She was the perfect candidate to write the Pam letters, perhaps using them to imagine that one day she would be writing to her own fiancé. It was a reality she was ultimately denied.

King shares ‘salty tales' with old shipmates
King shares ‘salty tales' with old shipmates

Telegraph

time2 days ago

  • Telegraph

King shares ‘salty tales' with old shipmates

The King has hosted a private Buckingham Palace reception for old shipmates from his naval days to 'share a few salty tales on the trip down memory sea-lane'. The event, thought to be the first of its kind, was personally requested by the King to thank his old comrades for their 'continued loyalty, laughter and support over the decades'. It was funded by the monarch privately. The King, as Prince of Wales, served in both the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the 1970s. Three months ago, he said: 'My own time at sea… remains one of the most formative, and fondest, experiences of my life.' Among some 400 guests invited to the reception were previous shipmates and their partners from HMS Bronington, Jupiter, Norfolk, Hermione, Minerva, Hermes, Dryad, Fox, and Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, as well as fellow aviators drawn from 845 Naval Air Squadron, and across the Fleet Air Arm. When the King gave up his military career to dedicate himself to royal duties in 1976, he used his Royal Navy severance pay to create the King's Trust. A palace aide said ahead of the reception: 'His Majesty was greatly looking forward to seeing his old shipmates, and no doubt sharing a few salty tales on the trip down memory sea-lane. 'He is most grateful for their continued loyalty, laughter and support over the decades, and looked forward to hearing where life's journeys had taken them all. 'As we approach the 50th anniversary of The King's Trust, which was initially funded with His Majesty's £7,400 severance pay from the Navy, it was a timely opportunity to reflect on what great things have sprung from those formative years – including lifelong friendships and a continued commitment to public service.' Others invited to the palace on Wednesday included a contingent from HMY Britannia and representatives from the King's patronages the White Ensign Association, the Royal Navy Club of 1765 and 1785, the Royal Naval Benevolent Trust and the Association of Royal Naval Officers. The King, as Prince of Wales, was taught to fly while he was studying at Cambridge University by RAF Squadron Leader Philip Penney. In 1971, he flew himself to RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire to train as a jet pilot, graduating later that year after receiving his wings. The King went on to embark on his naval career, joining the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. He began as a 22-year-old acting sub-lieutenant, and was later posted to the guided missile destroyer HMS Norfolk and then to the frigates HMS Minerva and HMS Jupiter in the West Indies and the Pacific respectively. The King returned to England to learn naval aviation, eventually earning the Double Diamond trophy as best pilot. He rose to command minesweeper HMS Bronington before returning to royal duties. In 2012, Elizabeth II awarded him the highest rank in all three services – Field Marshal, Admiral of the Fleet and Marshal of the Royal Air Force. On her death in 2022, the King became the Commander-in-Chief of the UK Armed Forces and, a month later, he replaced his younger son, the Duke of Sussex, as Captain General of the Royal Marines. In March this year, the King became the first monarch to visit a Royal Navy warship at sea in almost 40 years when he flew by helicopter to HMS Prince of Wales in the English Channel as it prepared for a major deployment to Japan. He spoke with deep affection about his time in the Navy and described his 'enduring respect' for the service. Meanwhile, the Queen has hailed the legacy of a literary prize that brought women's writing 'from the margins of the literary world to its very centre'. Camilla surprised shoppers when she dropped in on a pop-up Waterstones store in London, before joining an event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Women's Prize for Fiction. She said the prize had 'transformed the literary landscape for women', launching careers and ensuring that bestsellers had 'flown off the shelves into the hands and hearts of the public'. The Queen met the six authors shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction including Nussaibah Younis, whose novel Fundamentally tells the story of an academic who travels to Iraq to de-radicalise a teenage Islamic State recruit, and Yael van der Wouden, who wrote The Safekeep. 'I shall be thinking of you' Her Majesty told Tell Me Everything writer Elizabeth Strout: 'I have read your books, they are lovely.' 'Good luck to you all,' she told the group. 'I shall be thinking of you.' She was then introduced to the six shortlisted authors for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction, including singer-songwriter and rapper Neneh Cherry, whose debut book, A Thousand Threads, tells the story of her career. The Queen told Clare Mulley, whose Agent Zo tells the story of the Polish wartime resistance fighter Elzbieta Zawacka: 'I think I will put that on my holiday reading list.' And she delighted author Chloe Dalton by telling her she had read her memoir Raising Hare about swapping the rat race for a rural life. Author Kate Mosse, who founded the prize, said the Queen's attendance had been kept secret. 'Nobody knew, which is why people were so surprised,' she said. 'If you're going to lay on the Queen, if it's not Beyoncé, it's got to be the actual Queen.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store