VE Day Commemoration at the ARC

Visitors to the ARC’s 80th VE Day commemorations discovered all about the work of the Guide International Service (G.I.S.) – a highly trained group of young women who went in to Europe and Malaya at the end of the Second World War.

Their mission was to help ordinary people rebuild their shattered lives and they were among the first relief workers to enter Holland and the horrific Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen.

You can read more about the G.I.S. on the Girlguiding website – https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/what-we-do/blog/guide-international-service-post-war-europe/

The ARC curated a special display of G.I.S. kit belonging to Cambridgeshire Guider Alison Duke, known as Chick, which had been loaned by the Girlguiding Cambridgeshire archives. This included a vast array of equipment, both personal and practical, which G.I.S. teams carried with them. On display were a mini stove, canvas water buckets, very comprehensive sewing and first aid kits, a Union flag, enamel plates and dishes and a tea strainer!

Chick was among a team sent to Egypt which worked in Greek refugee camps and later helped bring relief supplies to a women’s prison in Athens.

ARC volunteer Sue Greenfield talked about some of Chick’s kit – https://www.facebook.com/share/v/12MHZbkpUNo/

VE Day was also marked at the ARC by the lighting of a Lamp of Peace – part of nationwide commemorations which saw a network of beacons being lit across the UK.

Around 10% of our visitors on 5th May VE Day celebration had come as a result of an article featured in the Eastern Daily Press https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/25088754.early-girl-guides-memorabilia-handed-norfolk-archive/