Brewery designs commemorative beer for Northampton veterans to mark VJ Day

A Northampton brewery has re-bottled its Phipps IPA for one-time only to mark the 75th anniversary when Japan ceased fighting in the Second World War.

It comes as the Royal British Legion approached the brewery so it could treat 110 members to a beer and an engraved glass tankard as part of it's 'Have A Drink On Us' campaign.

The beer is particularly close to Phipps brewery boss Alaric Neville's heart as his uncle Jimmy Neville was in the Far East as a dive bomber pilot when VJ Day was declared.

The ale, which will be sold at £2.50 per bottle, has taken two weeks to redesign by Darrin Stevens from the branch and brewery manager, Samantha Toyne.

Samantha said: "When the RBL got in touch with us and asked us if we would be interested in helping Alaric jumped at the chance because his uncle was in the RAF.

"For the first time Phipps IPA has been poured into imperial pint bottles and it's one of Phipps' original recipes so we thought it was an ideal opportunity to brew the IPA for Northampton veterans and we thought it tied in really nicely."

One of the veterans at the launch was Second World War RAF pilot Edwin 'Eddie' Habberley whose interest in flying as a boy and watching dog fights over London during the Battle of Britain inspired him to volunteer for the RAF aged 17 in February 1942.

Eddie, who was a Guinness salesman for 20 years and was in Calcutta (now Kolkata) on VJ Day, said the beer was a "damn good gesture".

Eddie flew Spitfires down the Suez Canal, as well as in India where he went to 'jungle school' to learn how to survive in the wild if his plane crashed. The then-21-year-old Royal Air Force pilot spent May 8, 1945, in a hospital in India after his Spitfire crashed in then-Burma on the way back from a patrol. After Victory in Japan was declared, Eddie was transferred to Hong Kong where he did more patrols in his Spitfire, looking out for any remaining insurgents.

Darrin Stevens from the RBL Duston and District branch added: "There are very few Second World War veterans left. We should be proud as they served in a world war, and we know them as friends.

"The key thing here is that the charities do a lot in the background and is run by volunteers who give up time and the fallen gave up a life. We should remember them."