Dale talks to Alison Campsie as they discuss the souvenir VE Day edition of The Scotsman
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin.
00:03It's a special edition today as we reflect on the 80-year anniversary of VE Day.
00:10I'm joined by our heritage correspondent, Alison Campsey,
00:14who's played a massive central role in producing all the content that we've run over the past week.
00:20And it has culminated in a special souvenir edition of the Scotsman today.
00:27The front page, as we'll pull up now, a really significant, powerful illustration, I think.
00:35A message, thank you, obviously, to all those who were lost during the Second World War.
00:43A significant day, VE Day, was a celebration across the country here in Scotland and the rest of the UK,
00:49but also started a period of official mourning as we started to move out of that dark period of the Second World War
00:58as a country and on to brighter things.
01:02You can see that image, which was sourced from the Imperial War Museum on the front
01:08and a souvenir supplement inside today's Scotsman stretching to 16 pages.
01:15Alison, you've come on today to talk a bit about it.
01:18You've written a lot about VE Day, reflecting on the stories of the time
01:23and also bringing it into the present as well with some events that have happened this week.
01:28I know when you write about these things, a lot of it, you know, becomes personal.
01:33It's hard not to. What's really touched you in terms of stories that you've covered over the past week?
01:39Oh, morning, Dale.
01:40You know, I always find writing about World War II really moving.
01:45And every year you do it, and I think probably every year of my career,
01:50I've written about World War II commemorations.
01:53And I'm always finding myself getting quite emotional about it.
01:56And I think the thing is that, you know, it really wasn't that long ago that this happened.
02:03And certainly there's, for many folk, it's still living memory stuff.
02:09I suppose this year there was something that did make it a little bit personal, actually.
02:15I found this letter.
02:17I was getting a fireplace removed from my house,
02:20and there was a letter found stuck behind the fireplace that must have dropped down
02:25there probably about 70 years ago.
02:28And it was written during the war.
02:30This is the envelope here.
02:32And it was written by the woman who used to live in this house to her husband,
02:36who was serving as a merchant seaman during World War II.
02:40And it's like 10 pages of what life was like in the village where I live,
02:46in the house where I live, what it was like during World War II.
02:49And it was just all this incredible micro details, the day-to-day,
02:53trying to raise young children when father's away at sea,
02:59and all the little kind of notes in there about what was happening
03:03in the village during the war.
03:04Just incredible, really.
03:06So I managed to trace the grandson of the letter writer,
03:11and we had a great chat about his grandparents and what they did
03:15and their time in the village where I lived.
03:19So, yeah, the kind of war came into my house a little bit,
03:22which was, you know, really interesting.
03:24But beyond that, I just have to show you the supplement that was done
03:28because I think it's – I hope you can see that properly.
03:32And it really is amazing to see this all come together.
03:38It's been a lot of work, a lot of research.
03:41Like I say, you write about World War II commemorative stuff every year,
03:46but there's always something new in it, and there's always different information
03:54comes to light, and I think as your knowledge sort of increases
03:57during these periods of research, I mean, it really – you know,
04:01when you're reporting it, it becomes very powerful.
04:06And I hope that people go and buy this today because, like I say,
04:10a lot of work and a lot of interesting stuff, a lot of reports,
04:14which I've kind of done, you know, sort of bringing it up to date
04:17with kind of stuff that's happening around VED.
04:20They did a big bit about the King's own Scottish borderers
04:27and what they're doing.
04:29They lost 1,000 men during World War II, and those figures, you know,
04:33for a largely rural population, you know, just incredible losses.
04:38And we did a piece about the Scots fighters who paved the way to Allied victory.
04:43Now, there was thousands of Scots who made it over the Rhine
04:46in the last stages of World War II.
04:48So we've gone into that.
04:49We did an interview with Trevor Royal.
04:50So it was really interesting, you know, to see the last stages
04:54kind of being mapped out towards the German surrender
04:56and the Scots being really, really a major part of that.
05:01So a lot of work, very, very interesting topic, very moving topic
05:06and very proud of the supplement and everyone who's contributed to it.
05:09I think it's turned out well.
05:12And we should say if you're visiting the Scotsman side as well,
05:16we've created a special section just under the top part
05:20of the homepage with all the VE Day coverage that's been produced
05:24over the course of the week and some of those features,
05:27including that terrific tale about the letter that Alison's discovered
05:33in her fireplace as well.
05:34I'm just talking through the rabbit hole that led you down as well, Alison.
05:38Well, look, we also did something a little bit special to mark the occasion.
05:43We dug back through the Scotsman's archives and produced something
05:47that's not only part of our print coverage today,
05:50it's up on the site to read as well.
05:53Can you talk us through that?
05:54Hi.
05:55Well, look, you know, throughout the supplement,
05:58we've reproduced the kind of front pages of the Scotsman
06:02at the time that the German surrender was announced
06:06and that war in Europe was over.
06:08I mean, can you imagine writing that story and just to read it,
06:12you know, just kind of put a shiver up my spine, as did this.
06:15And I would say there's lots of good things in the Scotsman
06:18surrounding VE Day, but we've reproduced our editorial
06:24from May the 8th, 1945.
06:27And what a read.
06:28I would just, you know, for this alone,
06:30go buy your paper today because it is really something else.
06:33And you can read it on the website.
06:35But the quality of writing is immense and the emotion in there
06:41and the pragmatism and just what a great piece of writing it is.
06:47And I really would recommend that everyone should lay eyes
06:50on this today to have written that at that time.
06:55Really extraordinary.
06:56What a reflection on the right are and the paper at large.
07:00And it really is worth picking up to have a look at this today.
07:04Look, we're proud to have marked the occasion as a publication
07:08by producing this supplement.
07:10Yeah, absolutely.
07:13As we've discussed, you can read it, all the content from it,
07:16at scotsman.com.
07:18If you'd like to come to us digitally,
07:21if not, the souvenir edition of the paper is out there
07:25on the newsstands to pick up.
07:27Alison, thank you very much for joining us.
07:29We're going to carry all the latest from events today
07:33to mark the V-Day anniversary.
07:36That will be in the Friday edition of the Scotsman as well.
07:39Thanks to all you at home, whether you're at home in the workplace
07:43or otherwise, who have joined us for this.
07:45And we hope if you're out marking the occasion today,
07:50pass on our best wishes and our tribute to those
07:55who were lost throughout the war.