Eighty years ago this month, following the end of hostilities in Europe, a General Election was held on 5 July 1945. The photo shows an American serviceman posing with a poster of Winston Churchill.

The poster was advertising a meeting at the then Wymondham Central School at Browick Road in support of Colonel J. Sandeman Allen, the National Conservative candidate for the South Norfolk constituency. This constituency included Wymondham.

This was the first General Election since 1935, and Churchill had led the country from May 1940 as head of a coalition government composed of politicians from the main parties, which at the time had proved durable and effective both in military strategy and domestic affairs.

However, in the 1945 General Election, the results of which were not declared until 26 July, Labour won by a landslide with Major Chris Mayhew taking South Norfolk for the party and Wymondham's Edwin Gooch, who lived on Norwich Road, winning the North Norfolk seat for Labour. Five years later, Mayhew lost his seat, while Gooch retained his.