U-2336 off the Firth of Forth with two killed, the last British-flagged merchant ship lost to German action. 8 May – eight days after the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the collapse of the Nazi rule in Berlin, V-E Day is celebrated throughout the UK. Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes a victory speech and appears on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Street parties take place throughout the country. 9 May – German forces in the Channel Islands, the only occupied part of the British Isles, surrender. 23 May – Churchill forms a "caretaker" Conservative Party administration, pending an election, officially ending the wartime Coalition government. 28 May – American-born Irish-raised William Joyce, known as "Lord Haw-Haw" is captured on the German border. He is later charged with high treason in London for his English-language wartime propaganda broadcasts on German radio. He is hanged in January 1946. 1 June – the UK takes over administration of Lebanon and Syria. 4 June – Churchill, in a broadcast election speech, claims that a future socialist government "would have to fall back on some form of Gestapo". 7 June – Benjamin Britten opera Peter Grimes is first performed at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London with Peter Pears in the title role. 13 June – Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts renamed Arts Council of Great Britain. 15 June – Parliament passes the Family Allowances Act to provide payments to families with children. 18 June – the demobilisation of the wartime armed forces begins. 5 July – polling day for the first general election to be held since 1935; a few constituencies delay polling due to local Wakes weeks and the vote count is not made for another three weeks (see below) so that votes from the servicemen overseas can be added to the total. 17 July – Potsdam Conference – the three main Allied leaders begin their final summit of the war. The meeting will end on 2 August. 26 July – general election results are announced; Winston Churchill resigns as prime minister after his Conservative Party is soundly defeated by the Labour Party, who have a majority of 146 seats, and Clement Attlee becomes the new Prime Minister. However, Churchill will remain as Leader of the Conservative Party, in opposition. It will be the first time that a Labour government