The unconditional surrender of Germany, signed on 7 May 1945 and celebrated the following day, VE Day, was greeted with joy and relief throughout Britain, although there was still the realisation that the war in the Far East was yet to be won. Only the surrender of Japan on 14 August, with VJ Day the day after, finally saw the Second World War over.

For some, the victory was a time of rejoicing, a celebration of the triumph of democracy over tyranny or just the lifting of some of the wartime restrictions. For others, it was a sombre occasion, a time to remember loved ones who would never return. For most, though, it meant that it would not be much longer before their husband, boyfriend, son or father returned home.

Thousands of East Lothian men served in the forces at home and overseas and, with the outbreak of peace, anxiously waited to exchange their uniforms for 'civvies' and the infamous Demob suit and to return home. These men, who had served their country with distinction and faced horrors which cannot possibly be imaginable by those who were not there, were treated as heroes and returned to be guests of honour at civic ceremonies and 'Welcome Home' parties, often receiving the freedom of their home towns.

The war that these men sacrificed so much to help win has proved to be the 'war to end wars' that the First World War was not. In the 60 years since the end of the Second World War we have been lucky enough not to face another world war and have been spared the horrors that the servicemen and women, and their families, went through from 1939 until 1945.