On Monday 26 April Luke will be joined on Zoom by the Lord Mayor, the Lady Mayoress and Dr Harry Bennett from the University of Plymouth in a special livestream as the Blitz 80 commemorations come to a close.

In this livestream, which will go out live on Luke’s Facebook page, Luke will present to the Lord Mayor pertinent letters of friendship and remembrance received from a number of countries that supported Plymouth during and in the aftermath of the Blitz.

In the spirit of keeping in-person events to a minimum as restrictions are still not fully lifted, these will be presented through a pre-recorded video of a number of fantastic children from The Cathedral School of St Mary who volunteered to read out excerpts of the letters to the Lord Mayor.

The video will be presented to the Lord Mayor live, and in coming weeks the hard copies of the letters will be displayed in The Box.

To view this moving live-stream, which is taking place shortly before the doorstep commemorations, just visit Luke’s Facebook page here at 7.30pm on Monday 26 April.

Luke has been leading the cross-Plymouth effort to remember the people who died in the Plymouth Blitz as chair of the co-ordinating group. You can see more of the events that are planned here.

Luke says:

Plymouth was devastated by the nightly raids by the Luftwaffe. We lost 1,174 people in the bombing raids and we are remembering them in this anniversary month. Earlier this year I wrote to all the High Commissioners and Ambassadors of our friends who stood with Plymouth during the Blitz to share messages of support and solidarity. As a military city Plymouth hosted forces from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Norway, Poland, the US and many other allied countries. Join this special webcast as I present these letters to the Lord Mayor on behalf of these allied nations with help from the young people at The Cathedral School of St Mary.