Frome set to Remember VJ Day 80, with torches for hope

Frome is invited to join together for Remembrance over 14^th and 15^th August, with a church service, and Act of Remembrance and torches and reflective music to mark the 80^th anniversary of VJ Day, Victory over Japan.  80 years earlier on 15^th August 1945, World War 2 was finally at an end after six long years from 1939 to 1945. Millions across the world had died, been injured or were unrecognisable both physically and mentally. Peace had been declared after Japan surrendered, with the dropping of two atomic bombs.

So why remember? Jane Norris, Remembrance coordinator of the Frome Branch of the RBL, wonders herself with the world as it is, with ongoing rage and war and atrocity. After paying a visit to just one of the Frome families whose fathers served in and endured the conditions in the Far East, she was left in no doubt as to the importance of remembering. “WE must never Forget” she says.

Gina Parsons, who still lives in Frome says her father never spoke of his war. Specifics are limited from his war records, but what Gina does know is that her father served with the Chindits, officially known as Long Range Penetration Groups, more specifically the special operations units of the British and Indian armies which saw action in 1943–1944 during the Burma Campaign of World War II. 

Gina held up her fathers Chindits company badge, a silk map of Burma and the monthly letters from the War office advising Corporal Wright’s family they would not be receiving any contact for a while, but to keep writing. Her father, Arthur Ian Wright, had enlisted with the Somerset Light Infantry at Taunton 1939, had transferred to the 45 Recce Regiment (Reconnaissance Corps – later absorbed by Royal Armoured Corps)  – India, and became one of the bravest Burma chindits in 1944. He was one of the often referred to “Forgotten Army”, as, after the euphoria of VE Day on 8^th May 1945, the war in the Far East and Pacific continued for another three months. Brutality of jungle warfare, tropical heat and disease are now unimaginable, but for those either on active service or taken as Prisoner of War, it was real.

At the end of war, Frome’s veterans trickled home over the next year. From the Far East Ron Stone returned. Ron never spoke of his experiences as a Royal Marine commando until 2015, for the 70^th anniversary of the end of WW2. He died in 2021 aged 101. Neither did Reg Glover or Peter Knight; and Midge Skene only spoke to camera in 2015 shortly before she died.

It is to the families of those who survived; families who are ourselves, the next generation that we turn for VJ Day Remembrance.  “Lest We Forget”, “Lest the Light of Hope that will be lit goes out.”

Jane Norris. Frome RBL Branch remembrance coordinator

07776208531 (05/08/2025)