Column: Why this VE Day anniversary marks an end of an era for our industry

Many more were for those who helped their country in other ways, such as making parachutes for soldiers and airmen at one of Heanor’s many textile factories.

In fact, around 20 years ago, funerals for members of the wartime generation were a regular occurrence, as time finally caught up with those who had escaped death first time round.

From our seats at the back of the church or crematorium, we would regularly hear tales of how a much-loved granddad, the kind of old person you’d say hello to in the street or see doing their shopping, had risked their life as a teenager by going into battle in the Far East or climbing into a bomber for a night-time mission over Germany.

Many of them never wanted to talk about it, of course, although some would share their stories with me when they came in to pre-plan their funeral.

This is how I learned that one man had been given the Legion d’honneur – France’s highest military award – for his role in the D-Day landings.

He was an incredible man, with an incredible story, but his story was one of many hundreds from an entire generation’s worth of send-offs.

Theirs were funerals I was always proud to conduct. We would drape a union flag over their coffin and arrange for a bugler to play the Last Post. We would play Dame Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again or some Glenn Miller, transporting everyone back 60 years.

It was as if, no matter what they did for the rest of their lives, their life was defined by their experiences during 1939 to 1945 and their families were always so proud, quite rightly, to tell their story.

We hardly ever do any of these funerals anymore and that’s what makes this VE Day anniversary so poignant.

Anyone who was old enough to serve during the Second World War will be aged over 100 and, as such, their send-offs are now a rarity.

I don’t hear all the old stories like I used to. Their chapter is closing and May 8 will be the last major VE Day anniversary when anyone who was actually there will still be living among us.

This is our last chance to say thank you in person for what they and their dwindling generation did for us.