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Diana McCulloch was six-years-old on VE Day. Having been born in March 1939, she had no experience of anything other than the war that had been raging her entire life. In her home town of New Brighton, she remembers the day it all came to an end: “One day there was great excitement saying it’s over it’s over!” Like a lot of Merseyside, the coastal resort had been devastated by enemy bombs: “In Hope Street in New Brighton, that’s where my great-grandma lived, and her house had been bombed. The odd numbers, the odd side had been bombed, the even side’s still standing where Auntie lived and other grandma lived down the road.” This was where they were to hold their celebrations the day the war in Europe ended: “They had a bonfire, right in front of the bombed houses, a big bonfire. There were no fireworks, but everyone was singing and dancing. We’d never seen any bonfires.” It was a few days later when Diana was to see something else that she’d never seen before – streetlights. “They must have waited ‘til it went dark, we went on a yellow bus, a Wallasey bus and we only went to Hamilton Square Birkenhead, and there was just lights, streetlights which you see all the time now – I couldn’t believe it. I must have spent the first 6 years of my life in the dark almost!” Image: A young Diana