A FORMER bank manager has a special affinity with VE Day – it was his birthday and he was even named after it.

Victor E McCormick, of Barned Court, Maidstone, manager of the National Westminster Bank in Rochester from 1980 to 1990, said his rather pointed Victor E name had more to do with friends at his father’s wartime repair airfield than parental choice.

Victor, in the latter part of his career as a bank customer services advisor until retirement next month on his 60th birthday, said: "I am too young to have any personal memories of the war, but I do have a special affinity with May 8, 1945, since it was the day I was born.

"My parents were based at a repair airfield in Dumfries where planes were flown to and prepared for combat.

"Obviously, for my mother, there was the usual trauma and joy of giving birth while my father returned to the base afterwards to announce he had a son. His colleagues pointed out that whatever names my parents, Tom and Elizabeth, may have chosen, they ought to be consigned to the bin.

"In view of the significance of the day, there was no other name that could be given to a boy than Victor E. The E stands for Edward although it could have been any name starting with E."