the newsletter of the pembroke dock sunderland trust · 2018-12-18 · australian couple’s visit....
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The Newsletter of The Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust
Webfooter 28 2018 in Review
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Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust
Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre
The Royal Dockyard Chapel,
Meyrick Owen Way,
Pembroke Dock, SA72 6WS
01646 684220
www.sunderlandtrust.com
Facebook/sunderlandtrust
Twitter/PDHeritageCent
Instagram/pembrokedockheritagecentre
Registered as a charity
in England and Wales, number 1120476
Registered as a company
limited by guarantee, number 05920931
With the Christmas and New Year holiday
period upon us, we are again producing
a bumper issue of ‘Webfooter’ reflecting
upon a very successful year for the
Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust and our
Heritage Centre.
All of the team at Pembroke Dock send
our very best wishes to you for a Happy
and Healthy Christmas and for the
coming year.
We thank all of our supporters for their
continued interest during the year and
look forward to welcoming many of you
again in 2019. We acknowledge
especially the dedication and support of
our band of volunteers, without whom we
would not be able to operate.
With very best wishes,
Stuart Berry, Heritage Centre Manager
Winter closure 2018-2019
Please note that the Heritage Centre will
be closed to the public from Sunday 16
December 2018 until Sunday 6 January
2019.
The Centre will re-open on Monday 7
January, and opening hours will remain
for the new season: Monday to Saturday,
10.00 am to 4.00 pm.
Please call 01646 684220 or email
[email protected] for further
details.
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A year of anniversaries
2018 has been a year of special
anniversaries and the Heritage Centre
has been at the forefront in
remembering, the 100th anniversary of
the formation of the Royal Air Force and
the centenary of the end of the First
World War. Major exhibitions and other
events at the Heritage Centre have
marked both anniversaries.
Artist John Wynne-Hopkins lends a hand on
the First World War exhibition – see page 4.
RAF 100
The Royal Air Force Ensign flew again
over Pembroke Dock in July, nearly 60
years after the RAF station closed. Wales’
Senior RAF Officer, Air Commodore
Adrian Williams, MBE, took the salute as
the Ensign was raised in front of the
Heritage Centre, once the RAF Church in
Pembroke Dock.
Air Commodore Williams takes the salute as
the ensign is raised in July.
This was one part of a special day at the
Centre marking the RAF centenary. The
RAF100 Wales team and the Heritage
Centre jointly hosted a commemorative
event and reception which saw the
official launch of the ‘Many Nations,
Many Trades’ exhibition that celebrated
the anniversary. The exhibition featured
uniforms and memorabilia to highlight the
personal stories of service personnel from
many countries who served in the town.
The Reception was well attended by
local politicians and business people as
well as RAF personnel and Sunderland
Trust members. The Air Cadets from
Haverfordwest also played a part in
assisting with the day’s proceedings
which included a demonstration of the
Heritage Centre’s work with local schools
as well as presentations from the ATC on
Pembrokeshire’s historic links with the RAF,
and a presentation on a former
Pembroke Dock flying-boat squadron’s
present-day role.
At the RAF100 Reception are, left to right:
Sqn Ldr Andy Lewis, 230 Squadron; Cllr Aden
Brinn, Chair of Pembs County Council;
Air Cdre Adrian Williams, RAF Air Officer
Wales; John Evans, Sunderland Trust Patron;
Wg Cdr Greg Rawson, RNZAF, and Wg Cdr
Ruth Elsley, RAAF.
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Artist John Wynne-Hopkins (left) and Trustee and Volunteer Rik Saldanha prepare the Trench exhibit.
Great War centenary
Pembroke Dock has a 150-year
connection with the British Army as well
as having Wales’ only dedicated military
cemetery.
In November, for the Armistice centenary
anniversary, Heritage Centre volunteers
have created a new temporary
exhibition and display that has been
developed around a recreated
battlefield trench and officer’s dug-out,
and includes a Vickers machine gun,
many artefacts dating from the war and
a greatcoat of a World War I soldier. The
exhibition, entitled ‘The Glamour Gone’,
will run until the end of April 2019.
The exhibition examines Pembrokeshire’s
role in the Great War, including ways that
the county commemorated the end of
the war in 1918.
The recreated trench which forms the
centre-piece of the exhibition features a
stunning mural backdrop which is the
work of military, aviation and landscape
artist John Wynne-Hopkins, of Llanelli, a
long-time supporter of the Trust and its
work preserving Pembrokeshire’s military
heritage.
Armistice events
In addition to the exhibition, the Heritage
Centre also arranged a number of other
events and activities to commemorate
this special anniversary.
Each month throughout the autumn
there have been held a series of evening
talks linking to the First World War. The
talks have featured speakers such as the
Trust’s John Evans and Haverfordwest
Museum’s Dr Simon Hancock.
Over the Armistice weekend, there was
also planned a Choir Concert of
remembrance and on Sunday 11
November the Heritage Centre hosted a
special service which included a
beacon-lighting ceremony, linking to
others around the UK. Sadly the Concert
had to be rescheduled due to adverse
weather, but was held with great success
later in the month.
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Volunteers commended
In summer, fundraising volunteers at
Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre were
recognised for their tremendous efforts
over the past year.
The group, which had raised several
thousands of pounds for the Trust, was
awarded a Highly Commended by PAVS,
the Pembrokeshire Association of
Voluntary Services, at their annual awards
ceremony.
“Our group was Highly Commended in
their category,” said Centre Manager,
Stuart Berry. “The time and effort of all our
volunteers is essential for everything the
Trust wants to achieve, and staff and
trustees are eternally grateful for the
contribution of our fundraising team.”
Auction boost
One of the year’s major fundraising
events was a fundraising auction. The
volunteer team spent the first half of the
year sourcing lots for the auction, which
ranged from once-in-a-lifetime
experiences such as a trip aboard a
Svitzer tugboat, to signed rugby shirts and
tickets to local attractions.
Around £2,000 was realised for the
Heritage Centre at the event held at the
town’s Pater Hall in June. It was a most
successful first venture into this area of
fundraising and reward for the hard work
of the volunteer fundraising team.
It also reflected the support of so many
local businesses and individuals, donating
a total of nearly 50 auction lots.
Caroline White of PAVS presents the Highly Commended Certificate to Mary Willington,
one of the leading members in the Heritage Centre’s Fundraising Group.
With them are, left to right: Derek Church, Sue Clarkson, Peter and Marilyn Mitchell, Pam Thomas,
Mags Clark, Gill Springett and Pam Maynard.
Have you considered giving a donation instead of Christmas cards this year?
https://localgiving.org/donation/pdst
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Cousins Jeanine Belbin (left) and Eileen Hulbert meet after 60 years.
Family Connections
In summer, a remarkable series of
coincidences led to long lost family
connections being re-established after an
Australian couple’s visit.
Jeanine Belbin, from Victoria, was
following the family trail of her parents;
Jeanine’s mother had lived in Pembroke
Dock and met her husband who was
serving on Sunderlands in the Royal New
Zealand Air Force in the 1950s. They
married locally in 1955 and eventually left
to live in New Zealand.
With just an address and family names,
Jeanine arrived at the Centre and thanks
to local contacts they quickly linked up
with Jeanine’s cousin Eileen Hulbert.
With these family connections firmly in
place, Jeanine plans to return to ‘PD’ in
2019 to meet more of her Welsh family.
Airborne meeting leads to donation
A chance meeting between holiday-
makers led to the collection of a former
RAF pilot being donated to the Heritage
Centre’s collection.
Returning by air from a holiday in
Thailand, John Greer, of Saundersfoot in
Pembrokeshire, got into conversation with
fellow traveller Duncan Thomas, of
Marlow, Buckinghamshire. When Duncan
learned that John was from
Pembrokeshire the family connection
with Pembroke Dock and Sunderlands
was revealed.
John passed on Duncan’s contact details
to the Heritage Centre and a visit to
Pembroke Dock by Duncan was soon
arranged.
Duncan’s father, William Kenneth
Thomas, flew Sunderlands with three RAF
squadrons during and after the war,
including time at Pembroke Dock.
Duncan and Fiona Thomas meet up again
with John Greer (right). With them is John
Evans of the Sunderland Trust.
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Family ‘invasion’
Family members turned out en masse
when medals and artefacts of a former
Sunderland flying boat engineer were
presented to the Heritage Centre in
August.
Thirty people in all – spanning four
generations in the family of the late Bill
‘Sandy’ Sandiford – visited the Heritage
Centre to view a special collection.
Heading the ‘Sandiford Invasion’ was
Sandy’s son, also named Bill, and his wife
Ruth, their children and grandchildren,
plus nieces and nephews.
Sandy Sandiford flew nearly 2,000 hours in
Sunderlands during a long RAF career. His
collection includes campaign medals,
logbooks and other memorabilia.
Sandy Sandiford’s great-granddaughter,
Freyah Lock, displays his campaign medals.
Medals tell their stories
2018 has been a year of significant
donations of medals and personal
artefacts of Sunderland airmen.
There is a story of wartime heroism, and
ultimately tragedy, behind the medals
and a dinghy paddle from an Australian
airman who flew from Pembroke Dock
during the Battle of the Atlantic
campaign of World War II.
Ron Benning with the Dowling medals
alongside Centre Volunteer Margaret Black,
holding the wartime dinghy paddle.
The medals were awarded to Flying
Officer Bill Dowling, a pilot with No 461
Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force. In
May 1943 he was involved in an epic
encounter between Sunderland flying
boats and German fighters. He and most
of the crew survived that battle, returning
to land on a Cornish beach where they
used the aircraft dinghy and its paddle.
Tragically, weeks later Bill Dowling and his
crew were shot down and all were lost
without trace.
The medals were donated by Bill’s
nephew, Peter, and family in Australia to
the Heritage Centre. These were
donated, along with a diary and the
fountain pen used to write the diary, and
were presented on the family’s behalf by
Ron Benning in June this year. Ron, who
lives in Kent, is a driving force behind the
placing of a memorial stone at Praa
Sands, Cornwall, where the Sunderland
landed.
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A Stormtrooper and Biker Scout guard the gates to the Heritage Centre as the town’s movie
heritage is celebrated.
May the fourth be with you!
May saw a new event on the town’s (and
the Heritage Centre’s) calendars, as
Pembroke Dock’s links to one of the most
famous movie franchises were
celebrated around the town.
Already celebrated as one of Wales’ –
and Pembroke Dock’s – best kept secrets
is the fact that the 1980 Star Wars sequel,
The Empire Strikes Back made use of one
of the town’s Sunderland hangars to build
the Millennium Falcon spacecraft that
was featured in a number of famous
scenes from the film.
This fact was celebrated by an Arts
Council of Wales funded play, written by
Pembroke Dock born writer, Mark
Williams. The play was produced by Dirty
Protest, a Cardiff-based theatre
company, and toured venues around
Wales throughout April, culminating in a
Pembrokeshire performance on Friday 4
May, dubbed ‘Star Wars Day’ after one
of the film’s famous lines.
Part of the funding arrangement for the
play was a programme of community
engagement, and this included a day of
celebration in the town, which included a
parade through Pembroke Dock, and a
range of other activities and events in
around the town and in the Heritage
Centre.
“We have always been keen to
celebrate this important and very
popular part of the town’s heritage,” said
Stuart Berry, Heritage Centre Manager.
“And events like this can reinforce how
important it is that we continue to reflect
all aspects of the town’s history.”
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Classics steal the show – again!
2018 has been another bumper year for
events, in addition to those coordinated
in celebration of the year’s anniversaries.
The year’s highlights, however, again fall
to the Heritage Centre’s motoring events.
Although July’s Rendezvous was marred
by some heavy showers and hailstorms, it
was the ever–popular South
Pembrokeshire Coastal Run in October
which saw bumper numbers of Classic
and Retro vehicles of all shapes and sizes
meet at the Heritage Centre before
departing on Pembrokeshire County
Motoring Events’ last motoring run of the
year.
Heritage Centre volunteers have
supported the motoring events by
running a barbecue at each one, to feed
the hungry motorists and raise funds for
the Trust in the process.
Heritage Centre volunteers offering bacon
rolls and burgers to hungry motorists.
The run takes the vehicles around the
county’s southern coastline past beaches
such as Freshwater West and Angle,
before an optional return to the Heritage
Centre.
October’s South Pembrokeshire Coastal Run included a diverse range of vehicles, including this
beautiful Gilbern, one of the very few cars that were made in Wales.
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Minister’s Visit
Welsh Government Minister Lord Dafydd
Elis-Thomas was briefed on Pembroke
Dock’s significant place in Welsh
maritime, military and social history, and
the potential for this heritage to attract
growing numbers of visitors, when he
visited the Centre.
Lord Elis-Thomas, Culture and Tourism
Minister, met with Centre Manager Stuart
Berry, Trustees and Volunteers. Joining the
Minister was local Assembly Member, Mrs
Angela Burns. During a tour of the Centre
Lord Elis-Thomas saw displays on the
town’s connections with all three military
services; and learned of the active
weekly involvement of over 60 volunteers
and the engagement with many
community groups and organisations and
the support given to wellbeing initiatives
in the local community.
With Welsh Government Minister Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas at the Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre
are, left to right: Stuart Berry, Centre Manager; Jonathan Berry of Cadw; Mrs Angela Burns, Welsh
Assembly Member, and Trustees Gareth Scourfield and John Evans.
Be remembered for remembering them…
Find out how: www.sunderlandtrust.com/donate/gift-in-your-will
Webfooter 28 2018 in Review
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Catalina lands
A large scale model Catalina flying boat
‘landed’ at Pembroke Dock, just in time to
mark the RAF’s 100th Anniversary, in April.
The model has been donated to the
Heritage Centre by The Rolls-Royce
Heritage Trust in Derby.
In wartime, American-built Catalinas
were operated out of ‘PD’ by both the
RAF and the United States Navy. Local
removals firm ‘Mr Shift It’ made the move
possible and the Catalina arrived to a
welcoming crew including members of
the Penfro Model Group. In time the
group will refurbish the model and paint it
in the markings of an individual Catalina
with a local connection.
Along with Adrian Phillips and Gino Thomas
(centre) from ‘Mr Shift It’ are: left to right,
Peter Mitchell, Barry Clark and Bob Western.
Negative Treasures
A treasure trove of 50 glass negatives,
taken in and around Pembroke in the
1920s, has been donated to the Heritage
Centre by Martin and Viv French of
Bognor Regis.
Martin’s grandfather, Charles Norton
Thomas, worked in Pembroke Dock’s
Naval Dockyard and lived in Pembroke
with his wife Gertrude and two daughters
at the time the photographs were taken.
Charles Thomas was a keen amateur
photographer and his glass negatives
record local events and scenes and
buildings still familiar today.
Martin and Viv French display some of the
superb images taken nearly 100 years ago
with Centre Manager Stuart Berry.
Sunderland turret
Another project for Centre Volunteers is
recreating the front turret of a Sunderland
flying boat.
The turret, with its Vickers machine gun,
was recovered from ‘our’ Sunderland
T9044, which sank in Milford Haven in
1940. It is a Frazer Nash F.N.11 turret, now
a very rare example. The turret project
follows on the full size Sunderland cockpit
replica which Trustee Rik Saldanha and
his team previously completed; and now
is a star attraction at the Heritage Centre.
The reconstructed F.N.11 turret, from T9044.
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Plans for 2019
2018 has been an important year for the
Trust and the Heritage Centre, with two
big centenary commemorations, and a
host of other events.
The Heritage Centre will open early in
January in 2019, and we will commence
our event planning for the year early, as
we look forward to half-term in February
when visitor numbers will start to grow
again.
Our present Temporary Exhibition
featuring the reconstructed trench will
remain in place until the end of April, but
we hope to follow this with a new display
telling the story of Pembrokeshire’s Home
Front during the Second World War.
Over the summer, we will of course be
seeking to reproduce the success of our
usual array of events, including Classic
Car events and Armed Forces Day, as
well as looking to new partnerships and
new horizons.
The Trust and the Heritage Centre have
come a long way since the first heritage
visitor attraction opened its doors in 2009,
and this year will mark a tenth anniversary
of that achievement. We are hoping
that this can be a double celebration as
we look to completing our Museum
Accreditation process later on in 2019.
In 2018, we started to develop good links
with the National Museum of the Royal
Navy – an important connection for a
museum serving Wales’ only Royal
Dockyard. In 2019 we hope to build
upon this, as well as building on our
existing relationship with the RAF Museum.
It is hoped that over time, both of these
important connections to armed forces
museums that aren’t currently
represented in Wales, will enable the
Heritage Centre to forge ahead in
developing its internationally significant
story.
If you are interested in attending or being
a part of any of the Heritage Centre
events or projects, you can sign up to our
events email list, or follow us on our social
media channels, all details listed in the
box below.
Find us, follow us, like us, discover more…
Sign up to our events email list to receive regular updates about events and activities at the
Heritage Centre: www.sunderlandtrust.com/visit-us/mailing-list/
Go to our Facebook page, and click ‘Like’ to get our Facebook updates, including news,
events and activities, in your Facebook newsfeed: www.facebook.com/sunderlandtrust/
Our Twitter account also shares news and events, click Follow on our account to receive
these updates in your Twitter feed: www.twitter.com/PDHeritageCent/
We regularly share pictures and photographs from events and activities through our
Instagram account, click ‘Follow’: www.instagram.com/pembrokedockheritagecentre/
Of course, you can also contact us by phone, 01646 684220, or email
[email protected] if you have any questions or would like any information.