NEARLY a month ago, Looking Back featured a photograph of a military parade taken around the end of the Second World War in Richmond. Bandsmen and soldiers stood at ease in the foreground, civilians gathered around, and on the steps of the market cross, with bunting above their heads, some dignitaries prepared for a ceremony.

Alan Gilpin got in touch because he has a picture of a similar event. The bandsmen and soldiers are there, and there’s bunting above the dignitaries’ heads but this time the steps have a wet blanket of snow on them.

In neither picture does there appear to be a microphone – a very important detail, as Jean Ions also got in touch because she remembers addressing a similar gathering through an old-fashioned amplification system from the cross. She even has a picture of herself on the dry steps in front of the rounded microphone.

“All the soldiers and the townspeople stood round,” she says, “and a child from every school was picked to do a little reading. I was at Dundas Street primary school, and I had two lines.

“I can remember having to say these two lines in school every morning so they sank into my brain and I didn’t forget them. I can remember standing there on the steps as plain as anything – but I can’t now remember my lines.”

At the microphone with Jean is Doris Catt, who still lives in Richmond and who was speaking on behalf of Lombards Wynd school.

Also on the steps was David Morton, who spoke for the grammar school, and his widow, Maureen, has the handwritten speech that he gave. This tells us that the occasion was the Schools’ Day which was part of Salute the Soldier Week – a fund-raising event.

“We here who cannot be in the fighting line can play our part in another way,” said David. He was obviously a very composed young man, because he continued: “We can all put ourselves in the financial front line. A Yorkshireman is supposed to be careful with his brass and slow to fork out. But when a Yorkshireman knows that the cause in which he is asked to help is a good one there is no more generous person on earth.”

The war was obviously still going on as David finished with a flourish: “I am certain that we shall overcome Hitler's challenge to the British Empire. When we salute the soldier, let us bring our hands down smartly to our pocket and produce a tribute – a financial one, which will swell the funds of this week's event and make history, not only for Richmond but for the cause in which we are engaged.”

So our pictures from our various sources are from two, possibly three, wartime ceremonies.