Principal town crier Jane Smith will lead more than 300 colleagues across the UK and the Commonwealth in a VE Day proclamation.
Victory in Europe Day is celebrated on May 8 each year to mark the day the Allies formally accepted Germany’s surrender in 1945.
The Bognor Regis town crier wrote the official VE Day 80 Proclamation that will be announced by hundreds of criers on May 8, and will be leading her region’s proclamation personally.
Mrs Smith said: “It’s very poignant for a lot of people because there are so many ways in which family members have been involved.
“There’s a lot of criers who are ex-military, so it’s obviously very significant for them, and also if there were people from their families that would have been involved in the conflicts.
“The people that are left, we’re very lucky to be where we are now as a result of a lot of people surrendering their own lives.
“My father was in the Navy. There are lots of people who have family members and people like that who have been involved in things like that. Makes you very thankful.”
She will light a beacon with the mayor of Bognor Regis and two Scots Guards Pipers on the evening of the anniversary.
The criers will make the proclamation in towns and cities across the UK.
Ely Cathedral will have a proclamation and will run VE Day tours, including stories of Cambridgeshire regiments and evacuees who settled in the area.
Warwick’s town crier Michael Reddy will read the proclamation from the top of Market Hall Museum and a commemorative VE Day 80 flag will be raised at 9am at Leamington Town Hall.
Southampton’s lord mayor will host a VE Day 80 tea party after the proclamation is made on the civic centre steps.
Mrs Smith said: “There won’t be very many veterans left because we would be 80 years down the road by now.
“Town criers, we were news givers originally. Since then, we’ve had the introduction of newspapers and the internet and all sorts of things. But we do seem to be being used more again now.
“In the last few years, there’s been a lot more going on with significant anniversaries, and town criers have been really quite involved in that.
“There’s been a lot going on with the jubilee and sadly with the passing of the Queen, and then the coronation. And obviously the D-Day commemoration and celebration of VE Day and things like that.
“There’s a lot of criers that go on to do corporate stuff and things like that. We get to do all sorts of things now.”
The proclamation asks listeners to “reflect too on the words of our late and glorious Queen, Elizabeth – ‘Never Give Up, Never Despair'”.
Bruno Peek, pageant master of the VE Day anniversary commemorations, said: “It’s really just a proclamation of peace – the celebration of 80 years of peace.
“It’s another great British way of undertaking these events.
“It’s about using people and our tradition to celebrate these anniversaries.
“And these characters are so great, they’re all dressed in fancy uniforms and they’re amazing and colourful.”
