Devils Porridge Museum To Go Online To Mark VE Day 75th Anniversary

Before the Covid-19 Lockdown situation the team at Devil’s Porridge Musuem at Eastriggs near Annan in Dumfries and Galloway had planned to be doing lots with the local schools in the week building up to VE day on the Friday 8th of May.

A spokesperson from the museum told DGWGO “There had been many discussions with Eastriggs primary has to how the museum could help and the intention was for the primary 7 class to help us set up a 1940s house in the museum learning space using objects from the collection not currently on display and this would have also involved pupils wearing uniforms and outfits from the period to recreate photographs and postcards from the collection.

We were to have a similar involvement with the Eastriggs Social Club and the Tea Dance they had planned to hold. Unfortunately, all these events have had to the cancelled but hopefully we will be able to put them in to action later in the year to celebrate the 75^th Anniversary of VJ day on the 14^th and 15^th of August.

Our current plans, shaped by the need for social distancing and the closure of the museum, involved joining up with the Imperial War Museum and the Subject Specialist Network for a coordinated social media campaign which will see museum across the country sharing images and postcards from VE day 1945 and a Voices of War Soundscape.

As part of this social media campaign we will share the story of Robert Pattrson who as a young child went with his mother to ring the church bells at Dornock Parish to celebrate the end of WWII. Robert’s father William served as a ‘Desert Rat’ during the war. All of these will be available on the Devil’s Porridge Museums social media and through the museum website. Our plans also include releasing a Podcast in which museum volunteer Eleanor Oswald is interviewed by her granddaughter Maddison about life just after the war.

The various online clubs the museum is currently running each week will also be taking inspiration from VE day. Our online Arts and Craft club on Tuesday will be making bunting to make VE day celebrations and we would love to see people hang these in their windows for others to spot while out for their daily exercise.”