Prince Charles reads King George VI’s VE Day diary entry in sweet tribute to grandfather

To mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, Prince Charles read an extract from the diary of King George VI. The Prince of Wales shared his royal grandfather’s personal entry, written on May 8, 1945, in which the former monarch celebrated the arrival of the day they had been “longing for”. The Queen also reflected back on her father by broadcasting to the nation at 9pm, the same time he made the original WW2 victory speech.

Prince Charles read: “The Prime Minister came to lunch. We congratulated each other on the end of the European War.

“The day we have been longing for has arrived at last.

“We can look back with thankfulness to God that our tribulation is over.

“No more fear of being bombed at home and no more living in air raid shelters.”

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He continued: “But there is still Japan to be defeated and the restoration of our country to be dealt with.

“Which will give us many headaches and hard work in the coming years.

“The Prime Minister broadcast his statement that the European War had ceased at 3pm.

“The Germans had signed the capitulation in Berlin itself. The rest of the day was a general holiday.”

He continued: “Several buildings in Whitehall besides Buckingham Palace were floodlit.

“We were called for to go out onto the balcony repeatedly.

“We went out eight time altogether during that afternoon and evening.

“Lilibet and Margaret with a party of friends walked in the crowd after dark to see London in festive mood.

“Poor darlings, they have never had any fun yet.”