This weekend Liverpool waterfront will mark the 80th anniversary of VJ Day and Cunard’s newest cruise vessel – Queen Anne – will sail up the Mersey to join the event. Tony McDonough reports
Cunard’s newest cruise vessel Queen Anne will return to the Mersey on Friday (August 15) to mark the 80th anniversary of VJ Day.
Friday will mark eight decades since Japan surrendered in the Far East, finally ending World War II. Between October 7 and December 12, 1945, 22 ships carrying 20,000 prisoners of war and more than 1,000 civilians docked in Liverpool.
They were formally welcomed by civic dignitaries before being taken to transit camps in Maghull and Huyton where they began their final journey to their homes across the UK.
It is estimated more than 50,000 members of the British armed forces were imprisoned by the Japanese with a quarter dying often from tropical infections or undernutrition in prison camps, including on the infamous Thai-Burma, or so-called Death Railway.
About 130,000 civilians from Allied countries, including children, were also interned by the Japanese, including 2,800 mainly British nationals at the notorious Stanley Camp in Hong Kong.
Around 4,000 prisoners of war were supported and studied by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine as a result of the diseases they had endured in the prison camps such as amoebic dysentery, malaria and cholera.
This led to LSTM’s longest running collaboration influencing the way service personnel are treated today. LSTM’s research also included the effects of PTSD before it became a recognised condition.
Cunard’s contribution to the war effort, planned at its headquarters in Cunard Building at the Pier Head, was of such importance and scale that Prime Minister Churchill himself would later declare it shortened the war “by at least a year”.
Several Cunarders, including the largest (Queen Elizabeth) and fastest (Queen Mary) in the world, were requisitioned and converted into troop transports.
These ships were instrumental in transporting large numbers of Allied soldiers, with Queen Mary setting an unbeaten record for carrying 16,683 souls in a single voyage.
At war’s end, the Queens remained in service, making westbound transatlantic crossings to return home victorious troops (and their new brides) to North America, and eastbound crossings to bring home British prisoners of war held captive by Japan.
Queen Anne will arrive at the cruise terminal on Friday to join the commemorations. Katie McAlister, president of Cunard, said: “It is an honour for Cunard to be part of commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of VJ Day.
“We are immensely proud of our maritime heritage as well as our association with Liverpool and welcome the opportunity to help recognise the extraordinary service and sacrifice of those who gave so much.”
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A Service of Remembrance will be held at the Far East Prisoners of War (FEPOW) Repatriation Memorial on the Pier Head at 10.30am led by The Revd Canon Bill Addy of Liverpool Parish Church.
Civic buildings – Liverpool Town Hall, St George’s Hall, and the Cunard Building – will also be lit red, white and blue on Friday evening.
Friday’s service will conclude at about 11.30am, after which attendees are invited to remain at the Pier Head to take part in the national two-minute silence at noon.
To mark the end of the silence, vessels on the River Mersey will sound their whistles at 12.02pm led by Queen Anne.
Captain Inger Thorhauge, Queen Anne’s Master, will join Liverpool’s commemoration service and place a wreath at the memorial.
Queen Anne is scheduled off Formby Point at 6.30am on Friday as she starts her final approach to Liverpool. She will then pass Crosby Beach at 7am, New Brighton at 7.30am and is due alongside at Liverpool Cruise Port at 8am.
The ship will remain alongside all day until her scheduled departure at 8pm on Friday, passing New Brighton at 8.40pm, Crosby at 9.05pm and Formby at 9.30pm. All timings are provisional and depending on prevailing conditions.