80 Years Ago Today;
Joyce Digney & Cynthia Covello with two Sailors while wading in the fountains at Trafalgar Square in London on VE-Day - 8 May 1945
Joyce and Cynthia first met in the summer of 1944 when they were serving in the Women's Land Army (WLA), Joyce was 18 and Cynthia was 20, they became best friends.
Both had seen photos of the WW1 armistice parades in London, and decided that if they were still alive at the end of the war they would make the trip to London for the celebrations.
8 May 1945 was declared a public holiday in the UK after the German Surrender was signed at Reims, France on 7 May. The two took the early train into London that morning and eventually reached Trafalgar Square, where the celebrations were in full swing.
It was a warm day, and people were sitting on the fountains, wading their feet in the water. To cool off, Joyce and Cynthia decided to join them, taking off their shoes and getting into the water.
Joyce described what happened next:
'Two sailors came into the fountain to join us. One of them climbed up into one of the fountains and dived into the two feet of water. How he didn't kill himself, I don't know! He put his arms around me and fell back, taking me under the water with him. I grabbed the chap by the shirt and dunked him up and down screaming: "Look what you've done to me. How am I going to get home?"
After the dunking, the two women worked their way South to Waterloo station, where they dried off next to a bonfire lit by another reveller, before taking the train back home.
Both Joyce and Cynthia married Canadian soldiers after WW2 ended, moving to Canada within a few months of each other where they remained close friends.
Cynthia passed away in 1983 and Joyce passed away in 2015