VE Day, 2020

Hello. Since it’s the 75th Anniversary of VE Day, I feel oddly compelled to pause briefly from work and just share a few thoughts with you all; I'm not sure this is exactly what a LinkedIn piece is really for, but some things are just more important, aren't they?

I’m sure many of you, like me, have (or had) relatives who fought in World War II. So, as I sit here in a peaceful rural village in Scotland, admiring the view and realising just how lucky I am (despite the very strange and difficult lock-down situation we are all currently in) the ongoing admiration for our current NHS heroes, combined with this very special day, all made me reflect on other kinds of heroism too.

My late father was certainly a hero, to me. I was born in 1965, when that fantastic, funny man was 40 years old. Slightly over 20 years earlier, in 1943, aged just 18 he was called up to the Royal Navy, where amongst many other duties, he served protecting transatlantic convoys in often towering seas and terrible weather. Later in life he lost a leg racing motorbikes, then learned to fly with just one! (He once mischievously claimed that Douglas Bader came to visit him in his shop, but he may have been pulling my own leg, never mind his). What a guy he was and what a generation they were; I am very proud to be his son. My dad was just one of many thousands of men and women of every nationality, creed and colour who we will all very proudly and fondly be remembering today. The same shipping lanes my dad patrolled also carried hundreds of thousands of heroic Canadians and Americans who all got up, left their homes and crossed an entire ocean to come to our aid, and thank God they did.

World War II was full of humble heroes. People like Major Dick Winters of “Band of Brothers” fame, Wing Commander Guy Gibson VC, who led the famous Dambusters raid (with pilots of many other nationalities too) and the epic New Zealander Charles Upham VC who won no less than 2 Victoria Crosses. Apparently when the citation for his second VC was put before the King to sign he remarked, “2 VC’s? Does he really merit another?”. “Sir” came the reply, “it is my respectful opinion that Captain Upham merits this award several times over”. There were so many courageous women who should never be forgotten either. Countless female SOE operatives who went undercover behind enemy lines and often paid the ultimate price. Or, perhaps one of the very bravest people of all, Sophie Scholl of the White Rose non-violent resistance movement. As a young German woman of only 21 she was one of several young people who bravely printed anti-Nazi propaganda in Munich, in the very birthplace of Nazism itself. For daring to think differently, and for merely pointing out how crazy everybody had become, she was executed in 1943. It takes pretty astonishing courage to stand accused in a court, look your accusers in the eye and tell them “one day you will be standing where I am now”. Many months later, and with a kind of joyous irony, many of Sophie’s pamphlets were smuggled out of Germany, printed up in England then, towards the end of the war, dropped in their thousands over Munich to flutter down like righteous butterflies on the people below; truly wonderful stuff, and probably more powerful than bombs. Reviled by the Nazis, many streets in that beautiful city are now named after the magnificent Ms Scholl.

The fantastic Captain Tom is of course one of the few from that amazing generation who still remain with us. How wonderful it was to see him affectionately waving his clenched fist, admiring the Spitfire and Hurricane with their beautiful Merlin engines as they flew past on his 100th birthday. And how perceptive and poignant of the good Captain to point out that it was much more preferable to see such beautiful aircraft in peace than when flying in anger. Something he’d witnessed, but thankfully we haven’t.

Anyway, there you go! I’m really not sure why I wrote this. Maybe it’s a lock-down thing? I know we Scots are not renowned for showing our emotions, but on a special day like this one, I just felt compelled to say thank you to perhaps the greatest generation of all; every ordinary person who did extraordinary things, every man, every woman, every Scot, Irish, Welsh or English person, every Canadian, American, Russian, Pole, Australian, Indian or New Zealander, whatever nationality you were, and from whichever place on earth you came from. Thank you. If it wasn’t for you, none of us would be here now.

So, smell the flowers, count your blessings and enjoy your weekend.

Kevin Cooper 8th May, 2020