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Audrey Lambert was ten years old when the end of the war in Europe was announced. A month earlier she and her family moved from Liverpool to West Yorkshire with her father鈥檚 job; he was an inspector of factories and workplaces that made ammunitions. She remembers hearing about the ceasefire on the radio. Church bells rang following the broadcast and villagers rallied to build a huge bonfire in which to celebrate around. The majority of Audrey鈥檚 wartime memories are centred around Liverpool 鈥� the noise of the air raids, the skies littered with barrage balloons and the times spent in their family Anderson shelter, which harboured a cot for her favourite doll. The move from inner city Liverpool to the rural tranquillity of West Yorkshire was a welcome one. Audrey鈥檚 Father was a member of the local 鈥楧ad鈥檚 Army鈥�. She recalls the solitary tin hat that the men took in turns to take home and how she used to sneak into the spare bedroom to catch a glimpse of the hat resting on a rifle in the wardrobe. VE Day celebrations in rural West Yorkshire were a low key affair but for a ten year old, accustomed to blackouts and confined lodgings in an air raid shelter, dancing around a towering bonfire was an exciting occurrence.
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