The Scotsman Bulletin: VE Day 80 special edition with Dale Miller and Alison Campsie #VEDAY80

The Scotsman

Dale talks to Alison Campsie as they discuss the souvenir VE Day edition of The Scotsman

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin.

00:03It's a special edition today as we reflect on the 80-year anniversary of VE Day.

00:10I'm joined by our heritage correspondent, Alison Campsey,

00:14who's played a massive central role in producing all the content that we've run over the past week.

00:20And it has culminated in a special souvenir edition of the Scotsman today.

00:27The front page, as we'll pull up now, a really significant, powerful illustration, I think.

00:35A message, thank you, obviously, to all those who were lost during the Second World War.

00:43A significant day, VE Day, was a celebration across the country here in Scotland and the rest of the UK,

00:49but also started a period of official mourning as we started to move out of that dark period of the Second World War

00:58as a country and on to brighter things.

01:02You can see that image, which was sourced from the Imperial War Museum on the front

01:08and a souvenir supplement inside today's Scotsman stretching to 16 pages.

01:15Alison, you've come on today to talk a bit about it.

01:18You've written a lot about VE Day, reflecting on the stories of the time

01:23and also bringing it into the present as well with some events that have happened this week.

01:28I know when you write about these things, a lot of it, you know, becomes personal.

01:33It's hard not to. What's really touched you in terms of stories that you've covered over the past week?

01:39Oh, morning, Dale.

01:40You know, I always find writing about World War II really moving.

01:45And every year you do it, and I think probably every year of my career,

01:50I've written about World War II commemorations.

01:53And I'm always finding myself getting quite emotional about it.

01:56And I think the thing is that, you know, it really wasn't that long ago that this happened.

02:03And certainly there's, for many folk, it's still living memory stuff.

02:09I suppose this year there was something that did make it a little bit personal, actually.

02:15I found this letter.

02:17I was getting a fireplace removed from my house,

02:20and there was a letter found stuck behind the fireplace that must have dropped down

02:25there probably about 70 years ago.

02:28And it was written during the war.

02:30This is the envelope here.

02:32And it was written by the woman who used to live in this house to her husband,

02:36who was serving as a merchant seaman during World War II.

02:40And it's like 10 pages of what life was like in the village where I live,

02:46in the house where I live, what it was like during World War II.

02:49And it was just all this incredible micro details, the day-to-day,

02:53trying to raise young children when father's away at sea,

02:59and all the little kind of notes in there about what was happening

03:03in the village during the war.

03:04Just incredible, really.

03:06So I managed to trace the grandson of the letter writer,

03:11and we had a great chat about his grandparents and what they did

03:15and their time in the village where I lived.

03:19So, yeah, the kind of war came into my house a little bit,

03:22which was, you know, really interesting.

03:24But beyond that, I just have to show you the supplement that was done

03:28because I think it's – I hope you can see that properly.

03:32And it really is amazing to see this all come together.

03:38It's been a lot of work, a lot of research.

03:41Like I say, you write about World War II commemorative stuff every year,

03:46but there's always something new in it, and there's always different information

03:54comes to light, and I think as your knowledge sort of increases

03:57during these periods of research, I mean, it really – you know,

04:01when you're reporting it, it becomes very powerful.

04:06And I hope that people go and buy this today because, like I say,

04:10a lot of work and a lot of interesting stuff, a lot of reports,

04:14which I've kind of done, you know, sort of bringing it up to date

04:17with kind of stuff that's happening around VED.

04:20They did a big bit about the King's own Scottish borderers

04:27and what they're doing.

04:29They lost 1,000 men during World War II, and those figures, you know,

04:33for a largely rural population, you know, just incredible losses.

04:38And we did a piece about the Scots fighters who paved the way to Allied victory.

04:43Now, there was thousands of Scots who made it over the Rhine

04:46in the last stages of World War II.

04:48So we've gone into that.

04:49We did an interview with Trevor Royal.

04:50So it was really interesting, you know, to see the last stages

04:54kind of being mapped out towards the German surrender

04:56and the Scots being really, really a major part of that.

05:01So a lot of work, very, very interesting topic, very moving topic

05:06and very proud of the supplement and everyone who's contributed to it.

05:09I think it's turned out well.

05:12And we should say if you're visiting the Scotsman side as well,

05:16we've created a special section just under the top part

05:20of the homepage with all the VE Day coverage that's been produced

05:24over the course of the week and some of those features,

05:27including that terrific tale about the letter that Alison's discovered

05:33in her fireplace as well.

05:34I'm just talking through the rabbit hole that led you down as well, Alison.

05:38Well, look, we also did something a little bit special to mark the occasion.

05:43We dug back through the Scotsman's archives and produced something

05:47that's not only part of our print coverage today,

05:50it's up on the site to read as well.

05:53Can you talk us through that?

05:54Hi.

05:55Well, look, you know, throughout the supplement,

05:58we've reproduced the kind of front pages of the Scotsman

06:02at the time that the German surrender was announced

06:06and that war in Europe was over.

06:08I mean, can you imagine writing that story and just to read it,

06:12you know, just kind of put a shiver up my spine, as did this.

06:15And I would say there's lots of good things in the Scotsman

06:18surrounding VE Day, but we've reproduced our editorial

06:24from May the 8th, 1945.

06:27And what a read.

06:28I would just, you know, for this alone,

06:30go buy your paper today because it is really something else.

06:33And you can read it on the website.

06:35But the quality of writing is immense and the emotion in there

06:41and the pragmatism and just what a great piece of writing it is.

06:47And I really would recommend that everyone should lay eyes

06:50on this today to have written that at that time.

06:55Really extraordinary.

06:56What a reflection on the right are and the paper at large.

07:00And it really is worth picking up to have a look at this today.

07:04Look, we're proud to have marked the occasion as a publication

07:08by producing this supplement.

07:10Yeah, absolutely.

07:13As we've discussed, you can read it, all the content from it,

07:16at scotsman.com.

07:18If you'd like to come to us digitally,

07:21if not, the souvenir edition of the paper is out there

07:25on the newsstands to pick up.

07:27Alison, thank you very much for joining us.

07:29We're going to carry all the latest from events today

07:33to mark the V-Day anniversary.

07:36That will be in the Friday edition of the Scotsman as well.

07:39Thanks to all you at home, whether you're at home in the workplace

07:43or otherwise, who have joined us for this.

07:45And we hope if you're out marking the occasion today,

07:50pass on our best wishes and our tribute to those

07:55who were lost throughout the war.

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