VJ Day Liverpool 2025: Cunard's Queen Anne to mark special moment as civic buildings light up for VJ80 Day

This Friday (August 15), will mark the 80th anniversary of VJ Day.

Liverpool will come together for the occasion, eight decades after Japan surrendered in the Far East, finally ending the Second World War.

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.

The Far East Prisoners of War Prayer will be read by Meg Parkes MPhil, Honorary Research Fellow, LSTM, who is also the author of Notify Alec Rattray… about her father’s experiences.

Civic buildings – Liverpool Town Hall, St George’s Hall, and the Cunard Building – will also be lit red, white and blue on Friday evening.

As well as civic dignitaries, who will lay wreaths at the memorial, there will also be a speech by Professor Geoff Gill, Emeritus Professor of International Medicine, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and the University of Liverpool.

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About 4,000 FEPOWS were supported and studied by LSTM 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 become a recognised condition.

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 Cunard’s Queen Anne.

Cunard’s ships played a significant role in the Second World War leading Prime Minister Winston Churchill to state that their involvement shortened the war by at least a year – with both the Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary requisitioned and converted into troop transports.

Between October 7 and December 12 1945, 22 ships carrying 20,000 FEPOWs and over 1,000 civilians docked in Liverpool and 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.

Repatriation also took place through Southampton and the city will be holding a Remembrance Service at its FEPOW memorial. Lord Mayor of Liverpool Cllr Barbara Murray has written to the Lord Mayor of Southampton Cllr James Baille acknowledging the roles that the two cities played and sending Liverpool’s best wishes for Southampton’s event.