A pageant master for Queen Elizabeth II is aiming to create a nationwide singalong to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day and help “bring the nation together”. Bruno Peek, 74, from Gorleston-on-Sea in Norfolk, masterminded worldwide beacon tributes for the late Queen’s golden, diamond and platinum jubilees, and has now set his sights on commemorating the 80th anniversary since the end of the Second World War in Europe.
He has proposed the nation comes together at 9.30pm on May 8 to sing the hymn I Vow To Thee My Country as a way of encouraging Britons to celebrate VE Day. Mr Peek, who staged the Millennium Beacon project, was made an OBE in 2000 and became a Commander of the Royal Victoria Order (RVO) in 2022, but he said seeing the nation sing together would be his “biggest achievement”.
“We want the whole country, whether they’re involved in VE Day or not… to stop what they’re doing, stand up and sing this wonderful British hymn together, bringing the whole nation together in one special moment in time,” he told the PA news agency.
“I just felt there must be something that can bring people together that doesn’t have any political, religious or any other overtones, that people can sing with a simple heart without feeling they are being pressured to sing it for somebody else. “They’re singing it for them (the fallen soldiers) but what they’re doing by singing for them, they’re singing it together.
