GALA IN 1945
Ian Miller
9th November 2005

Seventy-two members of the Old Gala Club packed into the Upper Volunteer Hall to hear our President, Mr. Ian Miller, give a talk on "Gala in 1945", Ian first placed the year in its international setting. It opened with the world in the grip of the most costly war in history. Hitler was running out of men but he managed to cobble together 22 divisions on the Western Front and it took Generals Montgomery in the north and Patton in the south to overcome the Siegfried Line. V1s and V2s were falling on London, Germany put the first jet fighter into the air which was 200mph faster than any of our aircraft, we bombed Dresden and killed 130,000 people, Cologne was captured and on the 25 March US and Russian troops met. On 28th March Mussolini was executed, Roosevelt died just before the allied victory and we celebrated VE Day on the 13th May.

On 3rd May British troops entered Rangoon and on 21st June the Americans took Okinawa with extremely heavy casualties on both sides which led to the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6th and 9th August so as to avoid similar loss of life capturing each Pacific island. The Japanese surrendered on 14th August and the war was over having cost 55 million lives. There was no agreement at the Potsdam summit of the allied leaders and the Iron Curtain ~me down across Europe to remain for a generation. Stalin started to make atomic bombs. Labour, under Clement Atlee, won a landslide victory inheriting a Britain with 6.5% of its housing stock destroyed and the rest having had no repairs or redecorations for six years. De Gaulle was elected President of France, Patton was killed in a vehicle crash in Germany, the IMF and the World Bank were established, George Orwell wrote Animal Farm and Evelyn Waugh wrote Brideshead Revisited.

In Gala, the town was full of the military including Poles, Ukrainians, Slovaks and Germans many of whom married local girls and remained here rather than return to their native lands. The Ladhope Estate was gifted to the town, the mills were very busy with wartime contracts and PoWs started to return to parties, bonfires and concerts organised in their honour. Beveridge wrote a report on Education and Gala Youth Council wanted the parks, which were still occupied by the military, back for children to play in. Despite American pinup girl competitions and the fact that 3000 Galaleans went on holiday on 7th August at the start of the first "Trades" for six years, by the end of the year the Selkirkshire V AD had closed in November, a clergyman was preaching "Poles go home", prefabs were being erected, an RAF plane crashed in the local hills killing the pilot, food was still rationed, there was a coal shortage and a dock strike. The year ended on a rather grey and grim note.

Ian then showed a series of slides taken from photographs published in the Border Telegraph during the year. There were pictures of servicemen who had been killed in action including Squadron Leader J.D. Hogg, born in Gala, who had led 70 raids over Germany, Flight Sergeant James Sheridan, also killed over Germany and Captain J. Elliot MC of the KOSB killed on the crossing of the Rhine. Many friends and relations sent servicemen copies of the Telegraph to remind them of home so the paper published local photos of the poplars in Roxburgh Street being removed, Ladhope House under snow, the Mertoun platoon of C Company of the Home Guard, two Braw Lads meeting in India, the winners of pin-up girl competitions, the Earlston Ladies team who won a tug-of-war competition, a fete at New Gala House (alas no more), an excellent picture of Darnick Tower, Elizabeth Adamson winning a Baby Show, the Gala Army Cadet Force, the Town Band (they had no uniforms due to war time clothes rationing), R W Currie, manager of the local cinema and amateur magician, performing, competitors in a caged bird show and Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten presenting a medal to a KOSB soldier. Norman Houldsworth gave a very warm Vote of Thanks.

Reported by D.R.T. 10th November 2005