The New Milton community assembled at the War Memorial on the Recreation Ground on Tuesday 2 September to remember the 80th anniversary of Victory over Japan (VJ80).
President of the New Milton Branch of the Royal British Legion, Brigadier Paul Jepson, welcomed attendees explaining that the surrender of Imperial Japan to the Allied Forces on 15 August 1945 marked the end of World War II. The formal ceremony of surrender took place a couple of weeks later on 2 September 1945, aboard the battleship USS Missouri, in Tokyo Bay.
New Milton’s Local Historian, Nick Saunders, said: “Of the 140 men and women from Milton Parish who lost their lives in WW2, 18 of those deaths occurred in the Far East”.
He continued “5 Miltonians died whilst prisoners of war or attempting to escape from the Japanese forces. One of the two women on our war memorial is Nursing Sister Violet Mary Leefe, whose family home was in High Ridge, New Milton. She was on board a ship attempting to evacuate medical staff from Singapore before it fell to Japanese forces. On the 14th of February 1942, the ship was bombed and sunk. In 1947 Violet’s mother was informed that her daughter was presumed to have been killed in that incident”.
Addressing the assemblage, New Milton Town Clerk, Graham Flexman, delivered a reading of a particularly poignant poem about peace. Encouraging everyone to reflect on the necessity to embrace peace and walk in harmony with others.
New Milton Town Council and New Milton RBL, together with representatives from the community, are currently planning the Remembrance Sunday event taking place in the town on Sunday 9 November 2025.
View event details on New Milton Town Council’s website Remembrance Sunday – New MIlton.