WATCH: Villagers do Monty proud as Binsted sets tone for VE Day 80 commemorations

The eyes of the nation may have been London on Bank Holiday Monday for the 80th anniversary of VE Day – but a small East Hampshire village took the lead a day earlier.

The people of Binsted – the final resting place of Field Marshal Montgomery – marked the milestone on Sunday with a day of commemoration and celebration.

Monty would have been full of pride for the turnout with Revd Matt Boyes hailing the village’s “very special connection” during a poignant service in Holy Cross.

Churchgoers heard an airing of Sir Winston Churchill’s victory speech and sang WWII themed hymns before a procession made its way to the grave of 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein for a wreath-laying.

An Act of Remembrance at the war memorial followed with Falklands veteran, Lt Gen Sir Hew Pike, reading The Exhortation and Kohima Epitaph.

While the morning was all about commemoration, it was all about celebration during the afternoon with a 1940s street party taking place in The Wickham Institute.

There was dancing and singing, with villagers doing the Lambeth Walk and belting out The White Cliffs of Dover, after tucking into a lunch, which included rations of bread, spam, beef dripping and sandwich paste.

There was amazing memorabilia on the wall with Max Hadfield, nephew of the Aide-de-Camp to WWII hero Major-General Lyne, suppling copies of letters, photos and even Hitler’s personal stationery for the occasion.

He said: “I thought people would be interested to see all this, as today has been a great chance to get together and remember these things.”

A picture of a baby-faced Alan Shelley enjoying a VE Day street party in New Malden also adorned the wall.

He said: “I was only in that picture because a few months earlier we were relocated to Eton – not long later a V2 bomb demolished the house next door.”