CONTACT:
Julie Keller
501-454-8369

Little Rock Bells included in massive VE Day commemoration

April 21—Confetti showering down on Times Square, street parties, parades, even a young princess slipping out of Buckingham Palace to dance and sing with her future subjects—these are all iconic images of the exuberation that burst forth on Victory in Europe (V-E) Day on May 8, 1945.

Eighty years later, Little Rock will experience a taste of that joyfulness when Trinity Episcopal Cathedral’s eight massive tower bells peal at precisely 12:30 p.m. on May 8 in solidarity with bell towers all across the United Kingdom to mark the historic 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. The Trinity Cathedral Ringing Society has been invited to participate by the VE Day 80 organization, which is putting together a variety of celebratory events all across the United Kingdom on May 8. Trinity’s bell ringers will synchronize their performance with that of the English bell towers across the sea. Trinity Cathedral is located at 310 West 17th Street in Little Rock. 

The British celebration will include town criers proclaiming the good news, pipers on mountaintops playing a tune entitled “Celebratum” written especially for the event, 1,000 beacons lit throughout the United Kingdom, and public gatherings everywhere from city squares to village greens to join in singing the great British hymn “I Vow To Thee, My Country.”

It is a great honor for the Trinity Cathedral Ringing Society to be included in the VE Day 80 celebration, and TCRS will invite local veterans to observe their performance and share in the commemoration. Also, the ringers will have on hand a letter written by the father of one TCRS member on VE-Day in 1945, in which he describes his own emotions and reactions, as well as that of his fellow service members, when the joyful news of the surrender broke.

Trinity Cathedral’s bell tower is one of less than 50 active bell towers in the United States, in contrast to the United Kingdom’s estimated 4,000 active bell towers. The Trinity bells have never gone dormant since their official dedication in May 1988.

Trinity’s bells, which range in size from 338 pounds to 1,009 pounds, have a British connection all their own. They were cast specifically for the Little Rock tower by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, which began operating in London, England, in Elizabethan times. Although the Whitechapel Bell Foundry sadly ceased operations in 2017, during its long history it also cast London’s famous “Big Ben” bell and America’s legendary Liberty Bell. The Trinity bell tower is often visited by groups of English ringers, the latest as recently as March 20, who come to test their skill on the melodious bells. 

May 8 is formally acknowledged as V-E Day, but there were actually two signings of the documents of surrender. The first occurred on May 7, 1945, when German Colonel General Alfred Jodl signed Germany’s surrender on all fronts in Reims, France. A second signing by German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel took place the next day in Berlin, at the insistence of Soviet Premier Josef Stalin. 

The Trinity Cathedral bell tower is located on the corner of 17th and Spring Streets. Audience members are welcome to gather outside the bell tower, or on the sidewalks along both sides of Spring Street between 16th and 17th Streets. Parking is available in a lot across the street from the bell tower and on Spring Street.

For more information about the Trinity Cathedral Ringing Society’s participation in this historic event, please contact TCRS Tower Captain Julie Keller at 501-454-8369.