This May, the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans should have been taking WWII veterans to the Netherlands for the 75th anniversary Remembrance Day and Liberation Day celebrations (4 & 5 May), and then back home to Blighty in time for the VE Day celebrations in London on 8 May.
Sadly, these events had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 restrictions and many of the veterans will be spending the 8 May alone.
The Taxi Charity wanted to remind WWII heroes that they were being remembered for the crucial part they played in bringing peace to Europe despite the lockdown and designed a commemorative gift and booklet.
The gift, specially designed for WWII veterans by the charity, is a metal tin depicting the famous Buckingham Palace balcony image, containing sweets and chocolates, that were available in the 1940s, and a VE Day 75 anniversary pin badge donated by The Spirit of Normandy Trust.
The VE Day gifts are being distributed to these WWII heroes by volunteer London cabbies who do so much throughout the year to support veterans and have gone above and beyond during the pandemic restrictions. Dick Goodwin, Vice President of the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans, said: “Ensuring our veterans know that the Taxi Charity is supporting and thinking about them during this unprecedented time is so important to everyone at the charity. We know how disappointed the WWII veterans were that the events to celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE Day here and across Europe had been cancelled so we were keen to provide them with a commemorative gift. We have been overwhelmed by the incredibly generous donation from Tesco, who provided hundreds of bars of chocolate and nougat to fill the tins and to the World’s Oldest Sweet Shop, in North Yorkshire, who supported the project with traditional boiled sweets.”
