An exhibition in the South Cambridgeshire village of Gamlingay to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe has been brought to life, using the memories and skills of a teenager in 1945 to show what VE Day was really like.

Ken Lincoln was 13 when Germany surrendered and Britain celebrated peace in Europe after almost six years of conflict. Now in his nineties, he has built models of what he remembers, including adults and children in street parties near his home at Edmonton in north London.

“I remember dancing around a bonfire, beacons being lit, church bells ringing for the first time since the war started, and street parties for we children,” says Ken, who now lives in the Potton View Care Home in Gamlingay. He says he used “junk items, lots of glue and supplies from Amazon” to build his models, drawing on his skills as a teacher (including of craft) for more than 20 years.

“I did this because it’s a part of my growing up. I hope it sparks interest and memories, and even a little joy. I don’t try and make things look perfect. It is junk and I am doodling with it, as it were” he said. “Each character in the models has a background story which I enjoy developing but don’t record. I have got to keep my mind working.”

This is what it was like in 1945, says Ken Lincoln

Dozens of tiny figures are shown having a festive meal at a street party, with others dancing with joy. Ken has even imagined the scene in Trafalgar Square, where huge crowds gathered to celebrate. They stretched up the Mall to Buckingham Palace, where King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, Princesses Elizabeth (the future Elizabeth II) and Margaret, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, were on the balcony to wave to jubilant crowds.

The exhibition, organised by the village’s Parish Council, features the memories of other Gamlingay residents in 2025, like 97-year-old Doreen Martin, also then living in north London, who was among the crowds outside Buckingham Palace. “People were climbing up the railings. It was the most wonderful atmosphere. Nobody could imagine anything like it.”

Gamlingay’s tribute to the war-time generations who fought or formed the ‘home front’ during World War II will run until early June at the Eco Hub community centre. It also features the story of children from a school at Holloway in London who were evacuated to the village in 1939, photographs of local celebrations on VE Day, a Home Guard parade, soldiers practising unarmed combat, and Italian prisoners of war working on a local farm, and a display of war-time propaganda posters, bearing famous slogans like ‘Dig for Victory’ and ‘Careless talk costs lives’.

VE Day exhibition uses models to bring 1945 joy to modern audience