HMS Rushen Castle (K372) was launched on the 16th of July, 1943. The Castle class corvette was built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd, Wallsend. She served as a convoy escort during the Second World War.

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The opening performance at the Little Theatre in Gateshead was A Midsummer Night's Dream on the 13th of October 1943. The Theatre was established by the Progressive Players. The building was designed by Herbert Lewis Honeyman and funded by the Dodds sisters, of Home House, Low Fell, who were founder members of the Progressive Players in 1920.

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The Allies formally accepted Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on the 8th of May 1945, marking the end of the Second World War in Europe. Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) saw mass celebrations all over Europe.

Imperial Japan surrendered on the 15th of August, bringing the Second World War to an end - known as Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day). A formal surrender ceremony was performed in Tokyo Bay, Japan, aboard the battleship USS Missouri on the 2nd of September 1945. 

HMS Hercules (R49) was a Majestic class aircraft carrier built by Vickers-Armstrong on the River Tyne, launched 22nd September 1945 by Lady Cripps & Sir Stafford Cripps. The ship had been ordered during the Second World War, however, her construction was suspended in 1956, following the end of the war. Later she was purchased by the Indian Navy, completed in 1961 and renamed as the "INS Vikrant" - India's first aircraft carrier.

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The overnight express from King’s Cross to Newcastle collided with a derailed goods train near Browney, 2 miles south of Durham, on the 5th of January 1946. The first 3 coaches of the train were almost completely destroyed. Ten people are killed and eight were seriously injured. The dead were nearly all young service personnel, most of them from the North East.

Newcastle Corporation ran a programme of modernisation and expansion of it's trolleybus network between 1946 and 1949. During that period 186 new trolleybuses were ordered, replacing the original fleet of around 100, and expanding the network to cover 37 route miles. 

Princess Elizabeth launched the cargo ship 'British Princess' from the Laing & Sons shipyard at Deptford, Sunderland, on the 30th of April 1946 

Nationalisation of the coal industry took effect on the 1st January 1947, enacting the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act of 1946. The National Coal Board (NCB) took over the operation of 958 collieries, which at that time employed nearly 800,000 workers (4% of Britain's total workforce). Many of the privately-owned collieries had been deemed small and inefficient, with about half were judged to be in need of immediate attention.

A notice was posted at every colliery: "This colliery is now managed by the National Coal Board on behalf of the people".

The school leaving age in the UK was raised from 14 to 15 in 1947.  This had been legislated for in the Education Act of 1944. 

Newton Aycliffe in County Durham was established on the 19th April 1947, under the New Towns Act of 1946. William Beveridge, architect of the Welfare State chose Newton Aycliffe as a flagship of the New Towns. Newton Aycliffe was built on the moors and farmland between Aycliffe and Middridge - part on the site of a huge munitions factory built during the Second World War. Beveridge later came to  live here in the town.

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HMS Albion, a Centaur-class aircraft carrier, was launched on the Tyne in May 1947.  She was built by Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd. Construction of the ship began in 1944, during World War 2.

Increasing mechanisation and production targets - the colliery manager and a miner filled at Stobswood Colliery, Morpeth, Northumberland.

Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) laid the foundation stone for St Mary's College at Durham University on the 23rd of October 1947.

The Flying Scotsman express crashed near Goswick in Northumberland on the 26th of October, 1947. The train derailed after failing to slow for a diversion, resulting in 28 people being killed. This tragedy occurred just two days after the South Croydon rail crash, in which 32 people died when 2 commuter trains collided.

Following the Transport Act 1947 of Clement Attlee's Labour Government, the "Big Four" railway companies came under state control on the 1st of January 1948. British Railways took over the operation of the large private companies, which came out of earlier rail industry consolidation following the Railways Act 1921: the Great Western Railway (GWR), the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and the Southern Railway (SR). British Railways was divided into regions - including the North East Region, which covered the LNER lines north of York.

The gardens in the Quadrangle were laid out and planted in 1947-1949 by JS. Allen, Professor of Town and Country Planning. They were designed as a memorial garden, with a plaque in the gardens stating: "1914-18. 1939-45. This garden quadrangle was laid out in 1949 in memory of all members of the Newcastle Division of the University of Durham who gave their lives in two wars."
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