VE Day: Hampstead priest and former Vicar-General on the importance of remembering the Second World War
Sheikh Dr Muhammad Al-Hussaini,Monsignor Phelim Rowland & Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg at the interfaith Armistice Day service (Pic: Nigel Sutton) - Credit: Nigel Sutton
The brutality of the Second World War left an indelible mark but people have forgotten how great the loss was, according to a military chaplain of 27 years.
Monsignor Phelim Rowland, parish priest at St Mary’s, Hampstead, was previously Vicar-General of the British Army and served in the Falklands War.
He was born in 1949 and said: “I remember particularly well, as a child, how the area of Hampstead and down towards the West End was potted with bombed-out buildings. They were our playgrounds.
“On any one road there’d be half a dozen houses, and always one or two missing.
“I remember clearly the overwhelming greyness there was after the war. I don’t remember the conflict, but I do remember its after-effects.”
You may also want to watch:
VE Day is important, he said, because as collective memory fades, “we don’t have the conception of just how big the loss was”.
“We are all worried about the virus today,” he continued. “In those days people went through that terror every single day. They were not quite sure if their house would be destroyed or if they themselves would be killed by bombing. It was such an anxious society.”
Most Read
- 1 Covid, O2, police, village square, Notting Hill Genesis and the Suburb
- 2 Women attacked by wrench-wielding man in Hampstead
- 3 South Hampstead neighbours mourn tree felled by Storm Christoph
- 4 Keeping your distance: Hampstead joggers and creperie crowds
- 5 Crouch End's 'Paul the Paper' bids farewell to Broadway stall
- 6 Arteta 'very disappointed' by Arsenal exit
- 7 Every single critical care bed full at hospitals
- 8 Buyers claim luxury flats are 'nightmare' construction site
- 9 Obituary: Psychotherapist and author Dr Joseph Berke
- 10 'Big victory,' says man behind Haverstock Hill cycle lanes legal challenge