Stan Gill with his wife Winnie, pictured during the warFOR one former soldier the commemoration of VE day brought back vivid memories both good and bad.

In 1945 George Martin, now 82, was in the middle of the victory celebrations, playing the piano accordion in a London pub, when he heard his best friend, Stanley Gill, had been killed. He was devastated by the news but, in the midst of that devastation he was comforted by the woman he later married his late friend's little sister.

Mr Martin, of Devizes Road, Hilperton, said: "When people heard the news on VE day everything went mad, the streets were full of people, the pubs stayed open and when Stan's family walked in I was still playing.

"As soon as we heard, the whole mood went from being completely mad to being totally sombre. Stan's younger sister, Ethel, left her family, came across to me, put her head on my shoulder and cried and cried. She had lost her big brother and I had lost my best school friend. For the rest of my leave Ethel and I were together."

Stan Gill had been serving on the navy frigate HMS Goodall, which was the last ship to be sunk before the end of the war in Europe was declared. He was just 21.

George Martin, who was in the army, had returned home for seven days leave the day before the victory in Europe was announced.

He said: "Truthfully, when I heard I just went upstairs and cried my eyes out."

Since they were boys he and Stan Gill had played the piano accordion together and George Martin first met his future wife when she was five and he was eight.

"We used to meet at Stan's house to decide what to play. At that age three years is a big age gap and she was just a real pain."

The couple married in 1947 and were inseparable until Mrs Martin's death in 1986.

Mr Martin said: "I lost a partner I had known since she was five years old, a loss that is with me every waking hour."

The couple lived in many places as Mr Martin's job with Tann-Synchronome, a company producing security devices, took him all over the country, but they settled in Hilperton in 1964.

They had a son, Brian, and a daughter, Janet and have two grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Mrs Martin would always spend VE day in quiet contemplation, not talking to anyone and, out of respect for her feelings, her husband did not start attending remembrance events until after her death.

On Sunday he joined fellow veterans to remember those lost in a service held at St James's Church, Trowbridge.