This week we have added 140,716 new pages to The Archive. We have added pages to six of our existing titles, with new additions to the Evening Herald (Dublin) spanning the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. We have also added pages to titles covering the city of Bristol – the Horfield and Bishopston Record and Montpelier & District Free Press – and the county of Dorset – the Southern Times and Dorset County Herald.

We have added further pages to the Liverpool Echo, which means this particular paper now covers the years 1879 through to 1995. 1995 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, and you can discover fascinating insights into the events of both 1945 and 1995 within the pages of the Liverpool Echo.

In April 1995 the Liverpool Echo published a special edition commemorating the fifty years since VE Day, which occurred on 8 May 1945, and VJ day, which finally occurred three months later on 15 August 1945. The special edition contains many wonderful pictures from 1945, and also compelling stories from those who were there.

One such story comes from Harold Wolfe, who worked on the sports desk of the Liverpool Echo for forty-three years. In 1945, he was working under Brigadier David Belchem, who was the head of Field Marshal Montgomery’s Operations Staff. Brigadier Belchem sent for Harold, and asked him to send the signal that would ‘end all offensive operations immediately.’ Liverpudlian Harold thus became responsible for sending the order that ended the war in Europe in 1945.

Liverpool Echo | 24 April 1995

Not only does the Liverpool Echo cover events of 1945, but it also reveals how VE Day was celebrated fifty years later. One of the more novel ways it was celebrated was by the manufacturers of Spam, who were keen to make the most of the anniversary by distributing limited editions of their iconic product. A Spam spokeswoman explained how ‘Spam crossed the Atlantic in the early 1940s [and] unlike other meat products Spam stayed fresh without refrigeration.’ Since production, it is estimated that 5 billion cans of spam have been eaten worldwide.

However, it wasn’t just the producers of Spam who were keen to commemorate the anniversary. Monday 8 May 1995 was a Bank Holiday, and people throughout the United Kingdom took to the streets to celebrate, holding street parties just like those of fifty years before.

Liverpool Echo | 9 May 1995

UPDATED TITLES

This week we have updated some of our recently added titles.

You can learn more about each of the titles we have added to this week by clicking on their names. On each paper’s title page, you can read a FREE sample issue, learn more about our current holdings, and our plans for digitisation.

Register now and explore the Archive

You can keep up to date with all the latest additions by visiting the recently added page.  You can even look ahead to see what we’re going to add tomorrow.