A crucial phrase the Queen used during lockdown has inspired a charity to organise a Forties show, titled We WILL Meet Again.

It is at Betteshanger Country Park, near Deal, on September 11 and 12.

Visitors will be taken back to the Second World War and will hear the music of the time.

They will also see teams of re-enactors with vehicles that helped to win the war, a Spitfire that protected the skies above Kent and a Huey helicopter.

The show is at the beginning of Britain's Heritage Week and will also exhibit Kentish products.

There will be food, including from a NAAFI (Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes) wagon, trade stalls, arts and crafts and fashions from the 1940s.

On both days day a local historian will give a talk on the Kent Coalfield during the war. Betteshanger Colliery, where the park now stands, was one of the pits bombed.

The speaker is former miner Jim Davies, the man who switched off the lights on the day the colliery closed permanently in August 1989.

The weekend is being organised by the Canterbury-based Hill 112 Memorial Foundation, which was set up to complete the work of the late Sergeant Gunner Albert Figg.

He lived in Rough Common, Canterbury, and spent the last 30 years of his life creating a memorial on Hill 112 in Normandy.

That was where 7,000 troops died in one of the bloodiest battles of the war in June and July 1944, shortly after D Day.

Mr Figg, who died in 2017 aged 97, fought in that battle and lost many friends.

He was determined that their sacrifice should never be forgotten and a Churchill tank, a 25-pounder field gun , and a statue of an unknown infantryman now stand on the crest of the hill.

Mr Figg's daughter, Annette Oliver, chairs the Hill 112 Memorial Foundation and Prince Edward is its patron.

Ms Oliver says:" "We still need to raise about £50,000 in the short term to complete the extraordinary

work my father set out to achieve.

"We were inspired by Her Majesty's words and by the example of the spirit of determination that she and her family showed during the war and are still showing today

"We've been through hard times again in the past two years and that determination is as necessary today as it was in the Forties.

"Kent has always been a front-line county. We're proud of our county, its traditions and what it can produce.

"The weekend will showcase all that's best in Kent, as well as reminding those who come of the contributions Kent has made to the country's prosperity, in agriculture, horticulture and coal mining."

The Queen had said "we will meet again" during a televised speech to the nation on April 5 last year.

This was during the first peak in coronavirus deaths, with 917 recorded that day, and people were kept apart during the first full lockdown.

The phrase echoed the title of the Second World War song by Dame Vera Lynn.

In both cases it gives the reassurance of people reuniting after a major national emergency.

We WILL Meet Again is open from 10am to 8pm on Saturday, September 11 and 10pm to 5pm on Sunday, September 12.

Tickets can be booked may be booked in advance, costing £7.50 each day on the Saturday and Sunday, or £12 for a weekend ticket. Entrance at the park gate on the day is £10. Children aged under 13 have free admission.

Car parking costs £3.50 all day.

Advance tickets may be booked on the Betteshanger Park website, click on Events, We Will Meet Again.

Those with trade stalls and military vehicles plus living history groups and re-enactors should go onto the website thehill112.com for all entry forms.

Read more: All the latest news from Deal

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