The Newsletter of the Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust

Webfooter Issue 26: Winter 2016

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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

enquiries@sunderlandtrust.com

www.sunderlandtrust.com

Facebook/SunderlandTrust

Twitter/PDHeritageCent

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, all of the Pembroke Dock

Sunderland Trust Team send our very best

wishes to you for a Happy and Healthy

Christmas and for the coming year.

We thank all our supporters for their continued

backing during the year and look forward to

welcoming many of you again in 2017.

With Very Best Wishes,

Winter Closure

Please note that the Heritage Centre will be

closed from Sunday 18th December 2016 until

Friday 17th February 2017. The Centre re-

opens to the public on Saturday 18th

February, in time for the half-term holiday.

Opening hours will remain for the new season:

Monday to Saturday, 10.00 am to 4.00 pm.

From Wednesday 4th January until Friday 17th

February the Centre will be open for group

bookings and for staff and volunteer activity.

Group visits are most welcome at this time

and throughout the year. Contact the

Heritage Centre team in advance to discuss

making a group booking for any time in the

year.

Please call 01646 684220 or email

enquiries@sunderlandtrust.com for further

details.

Webfooter Issue 26: Winter 2016

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Ron Boreham receives the Sunderland T9044 print

from Trustee colleague Graham Clarkson (left) and Trust Chairman Gareth Mills.

Farewell to ‘Sunderlander’, Ron

The Heritage Centre’s ‘resident Sunderlander’,

Ron Boreham, was given an emotional send

off before heading to a new home in Norfolk,

this autumn. A Sunderland Trust Volunteer

Team stalwart, Ron has been involved in town

heritage projects for many years and was

also a Trustee of the Sunderland Trust.

A former aircrew signaller who served in the

RAF for 34 years, Ron’s first connection with

‘PD’ came in the early 1950s with a posting to

No 230 Squadron on Sunderlands. He

completed an 800 hour tour on Sunderlands,

moving on to fly in Shackletons and then

various jet aircraft before becoming an air

traffic controller.

Originally from London, Ron met his late wife

Nan in ‘PD’ and they were married for 53

years. Ron, who has three sons, a daughter

and nine grandchildren, will be living with

daughter Gill and family in Norwich.

It was appropriate that Ron’s leaving gift was

a print of a Sunderland donated by Welsh

artist John Wynne Hopkins of the Guild of

Aviation Artists depicting Sunderland T9044

over a convoy. T9044’s story and its artefacts

are the centrepiece of displays at the

Heritage Centre, 76 years after it sank off PD,

in November 1940.

Other News in Brief

Cockpit progress

The replica Sunderland cockpit – detailed in

the last ‘Webfooter’ – has been having the

final finishings applied at the Heritage Centre

and will officially ‘take off’ in the spring.

Watch out for news in the next Webfooter,

spring 2017!

Castle market

For the first time the Sunderland Trust had a

stall at the hugely successful Christmas market

held - over a long weekend in November -

inside the walls of nearby Pembroke Castle.

Rotas of Volunteers helped Centre Manager

Stuart ‘man the ramparts’. The Castle and the

Heritage Centre co-operate closely to

promote each other’s attraction. To keep up with all our news and

events, follow us on Facebook:

facebook.com/sunderlandtrust

Webfooter Issue 26: Winter 2016

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Cubs plant for spring spectacular

The Cubs Daffodil Planting Party all set to go in the

Heritage Centre grounds.

With them was Centre Manager Stuart Berry (right).

Hardworking cub scouts have made a major

contribution to turning the grounds of the

Heritage Centre into a spring bloom

spectacular.

On a wet Saturday in November, ten

members of the 3rd Pembroke Cub Pack

planted hundreds of bulbs in the grounds of

the former Dockyard Chapel. They were

helped by cub leaders, family members and

Heritage Centre Volunteers.

On the day, over 600 bulbs – many

generously donated by local Wilko and Tesco

stores, as well as green-fingered Trust

volunteers – were planted in good time for a

spring showing.

Uniform grant

The Sunderland Trust has been successful in its

bid for a small grant to help look after the

collection of military uniform in its care.

With the £3,000 grant the Trust will seek to

improve the storage of around 100 items of

military uniform, and to purchase vital

equipment and materials including

conservation-grade garment covers, storage

boxes and rails.

The Heritage Centre will also be able to buy

equipment such as environmental data

loggers - essential for curatorial staff and

volunteers to keep track of the temperature

and humidity within the exhibition spaces and

stores.

As well as items in the permanent collection,

which will be preserved as part of this project

for research and display, the Heritage Centre

also has a small number of uniform items

which form part of its ‘handling collection’.

These are very popular with visitors and school

groups who want to get up close, and even

try them on.

The project grant will be funded by the Welsh

Government through the Museums, Archives

and Libraries Division and the Federation of

Museums and Art Galleries of Wales.

Webfooter Issue 26: Winter 2016

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Mrs Ann McPhee admires the prototype Sunderland model

with Autodromo’s Andy Cann (right) and John Evans of the Sunderland Trust.

Sunderland on an educational mission

A Sunderland flying boat is set to touch down

in 2017 at Pembroke Dock where it will take

on a unique education mission at the

Heritage Centre.

The Sunderland, an impressive scale model

with 14ft wingspan, is being created by a

Pembrokeshire company, Autodromo, which

is pioneering large aviation educational

models for museums.

In a first for a UK museum the Sunderland

project is being funded thanks to generous

sponsorship by the family of former RAF pilot

Wing Commander Harry Bunting. He flew

Sunderlands in wartime from stations including

Pembroke Dock and returned to the town in

the 1950s as a senior officer at the RAF base.

Wing Commander Bunting’s daughter, Mrs

Ann McPhee, and grandsons Ross and

Quentin keep in regular contact with

Autodromo and with the Sunderland Trust.

Ann paid an autumn visit to Autodromo’s

workshop to see the prototype model from

which moulds will be made.

“It was so good to see the wonderful job

Andy Cann at Autodromo is making of the

Sunderland and how far it has progressed”

said Ann.

Andy Cann added: “We have previously

made large models for the Imperial War

Museum at Duxford. One, of a Boeing B-29

Superfortress, is used in the museum’s

education programme with young people

assembling the aircraft from component

parts. The Pembroke Dock Sunderland will be

similarly constructed and used for a similar

role.”

The Bunting family and Autodromo are

working with the Sunderland Trust’s John

Evans to choose the markings depicted on

the model.

“Wing Commander Bunting flew hundreds of

hours in Sunderlands. His is a remarkable story

which we will tell thanks to the model and

through archive items generously loaned by

the family” said John, “no other museum in

the UK will have an exhibit like this - we look

forward eagerly to when it is completed.”

Webfooter Issue 26: Winter 2016

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Reunited with Dad’s uniform

Wartime connections brought two Canadian

families to Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre,

following in the footsteps of airmen who were

stationed in the town.

Allan Doern and his wife, Bev, from Winnipeg,

Manitoba, made a long promised visit and

were ‘reunited’ with the uniform worn by

Allan’s father, Doug, a wartime member of

No 422 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force.

Doug Doern’s corporal’s battledress and

forage cap, along with photographs and

memorabilia, were donated to the Pembroke

Dock Sunderland Trust some years ago and

are on display at the centre.

Bev and Allan Doern, and the Canadian uniform,

are pictured with Sunderland Trust Patron John

Evans and Heritage Centre Manager Stuart Berry.

Research

For Aileen Petri and her husband and friends it

was equally memorable to visit Pembroke

Dock. Aileen’s father, James Strathie Ladie,

was a wireless operator/air gunner with 422

Squadron flying out of the Haven on wartime

patrols. Aileen is looking up her father’s

records and will send copies for the Heritage

Centre Archive.

The Canadians are just a few of the many

overseas visitors who have made tracks to

‘PD’ in 2016 with many countries noted in the

centre’s visitor books.

Long distance volunteer

Australian Volunteer Anne Flaherty displays a

model Sunderland flying boat with (left to right)

Sunderland Trust friends John Evans, Marilyn

Mitchell, Margaret Black and Peter Mitchell.

Australian volunteer Anne Flaherty again

travelled half way round the world to support

the Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust.

Making her fourth visit to PD in recent years,

Anne, from Blackheath, New South Wales,

was very impressed with developments made

at the Centre since last visiting in 2014.

“I look upon Pembroke Dock as my second

home as it has such strong family ties for me,”

said Anne. “It is very important to my family to

remember our personal connections with PD

and to support the Heritage Centre.”

Anne’s father, Merv Pike, was a Sunderland

flying boat pilot stationed at PD with the

famous 461 Squadron, Royal Australian Air

Force. And her mother, Barbara, came to the

town in 1944 as a new bride.

Her father’s wartime story, published in

Australia by the family, is on sale at the

Centre. It is entitled ‘Just As It Happened’.

Legacy Giving

Leaving a legacy or a donation in your will is

a very special way to support the Trust’s

work. To find out more about legacies and

donations please see our website:

www.sunderlandtrust.com/donate/gift-in-

your-will

This information is also available by post,

please contact Glynnis Iles on 01646 684220

or write to us.

Webfooter Issue 26: Winter 2016

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Taffiators’ host art activities

The ‘Taffiators’ – Welsh-based members of the

prestigious Guild of Aviation Artists – returned

to Pembroke Dock during October half term

to host a range of art activities for all ages at

the Heritage Centre.

Artists James Field (left) and John Wynne Hopkins

at work at the Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre

Five artists visited at various times and led

sessions with visitors as well as painting and

sketching their own subjects. They were Ruth

Lewis, Tim Jenkins, James Field, Ieuan

Leighton Matthews and John Wynne Hopkins.

Among the many subjects worked on by the

artists was a fine study of a 422 Canadian

Squadron Sunderland preparing for a wartime

operation patrol at Pembroke Dock. Artist

John Wynne Hopkins did most of the painting

while at the Centre, finishing it later at his

home studio. This will be one of several

subjects from which prints will be available at

the Heritage Centre.

John’s painting of a wartime Sunderland

Successful Talks Programme

In the four months leading up to Christmas

four very well attended evening talks were

staged at the Heritage Centre. Speakers were

Gareth Mills (The Friendly Invasion); Ted

Goddard (Nelson in Pembrokeshire), Derek

Church (The Fire of Pembroke Dock) and John

Evans (PD and Battle of the Atlantic).

We are hoping to plan further series of talks,

and in order to make sure that we make

these as good as they can be, we are asking

for feedback from anybody who attended or

wanted to attend this programme – type in

the link below, or look for links on our website:

https://goo.gl/forms/u3NLBY91mbDgbn5D3.

For details of upcoming events, please follow

us on Facebook, or sign up to our events

mailing list – both can be found through the

links and buttons on our website,

www.sunderlandtrust.com.

In tune with the past

This organ, made in Boston, USA, has been turning

heads at Reception of the Heritage Centre.

A recent sort some of the Trust’s collections of

artefacts have turned up not one, but two

pedal organs! The instruments are in working

order, and new ongoing research is intended

to provide new material to help interpret the

vibrant social history of Pembroke Dock.

The Mason & Franklin organ, pictured, is

thought to date from the late 1800s, having

been made in the USA and sold by a shop in

Swansea before being used by a school in

Pembroke Dock.