Footage of Reggie being carried along Whitehall by a group of our students is included in a film taken by army photographers on 8 May 1945 showing Londoners marking the end of the six-year conflict in Europe.
The film, owned by the Imperial War Museum, shows Reggie wearing a scarf around his neck and with a Union Jack flag draped over the wooden plinth on which he stands. From the glimpses of Trafalgar Square in the background, it seems Reggie was heading with a large group of students towards the Houses of Parliament on VE Day on 8 May 1945, just like the thousands of people who gathered around London landmarks that day.
As this year marks 80 years since the end of the Second World War in Europe, anniversary activities are taking place between 5 and 8 May across the UK including street parties, the lighting of 2,500 beacons, services of commemoration, military fly pasts, processions, a display of poppies at the Tower of London and several concerts. Details of VE Day 80 celebrations can be found on the UK government website.
The footage of Reggie is part of a longer film, made up of different scenes across London on VE Day captured by the British Army Film and Photograph Unit (AFPU). As it was a public holiday, people celebrated by gathering in the streets and attended thanksgiving services, parties and parades. King's Archives also has photographs in its collections showing scenes of that historic day.
King’s during the War
Most King’s students and staff who had not been called up or diverted to essential war work, were evacuated from the capital during The Blitz bombing campaign. Arts and science students were evacuated to Bristol University, with medical students being sent to Glasgow, plus a small number also went to Llandudno.
The Strand was given to the Auxiliary Fire Service for use as a base for emergency services, with volunteer air-raid wardens drawn from the administrative staff to help protect the King's buildings on the Strand. These images, also from King's Archives, show sandbags piled up in the King's building, fire vehicles on standby in The Quad, staff working as wardens and the temporary home of the King's library which moved to the Great Hall at the University of Bristol.
The need for the wardens was demonstrated in October 1940, one month after The Blitz began, when a bomb fell in The Quad, creating a crater around 27 feet deep and 58 feet long, as captured in these King's Archive images.
Later in the war, there was further damage to windows and doors of buildings on the Strand campus when a V2 rocket fell into the River Thames. Research has revealed that more than 300 students and staff of King's and its partner institutions lost their lives either on the frontline or home front between 1939 and 1945.