Herald - Issue 409

Page 20 • The HERALD • 15th July 2021 v F @ heraldpublishing v All General Plumbing • Boiler Installations • Boiler Breakdowns • Gas Appliance Servicing • Central Heating Repairs 023 8089 9300 07917 445369 petertarr1@hotmail.co.uk Reg: 3515993 PETERTARR Gas, Plumbing & Heating • Re-Skimming • Rendering • Coving • Dry Lining • Tacking • Artex Covered • Floor Screeding www.tbrownplastering.co.uk Call: 07919 183989 Friendly • Reliable • Professional • Free Estimates FASCIAS • SOFFITS • GUTTERING • MOSS CLEARING CONSERVATORIES/ROOFS • PVC • CLADDING • FOGGY/MISTED & BROKEN DOUBLE GLAZED UNITS REPLACED • HINGES & HANDLES • WINDOW & DOOR LOCKS • PATIO DOOR ROLLER MECHANISMS & TRACK • WINDOWS ENERGY EFFCIENCY & SECURITY UPGRADES • WINDOWS, DOORS & CONSERVATORIES SUPPLIED & INSTALLED Telephone 023 8073 1884 • Mobile 07909 654025 Email doubleglazingrepairuk@gmail.com Web www.doubleglazingrepairuk.com DOUBLE GLAZING REPAIR UK ARE PROUD MEMBERS OF PC PAINTING & DECORATING SERVICES Interior/Exterior Painting Decorating & Small Home Improvements Paul 07783 405977 Free Estimates ~ Fully Insured 30 years experience pcdecor8@gmail.com June 6th 2021 - a D-Day Act of Remembrance on Lepe Beach A special 3 day event took place at Lepe Country Park on the 4th, 5th & 6th June. Even though strict COVID-19 restrictions limited pre-publicity, over a thousand people were able to enjoy the D-Day Lepe Heritage Exhibition and looking at the genuine WW2 Valentine Duplex Drive Tank on display on Saturday and Sunday. e Exhibition was located in the Education Centre of Lepe Country Park, and consisted of scale models of military vehicles and equipment including a model of one of the Phoenix caisson breakwaters for a Mulberry Harbour. Six of these caissons were built and launched on Lepe Beach at Stanswood Bay. ere were many maps, photos and literature, all pertaining to this location during WW2. e Royal Dragoons had kindly displayed some of their artifacts plus a mannequin clothed in tank battle dress. e Waterside Bomb Map created great interest again; showing where and what type of bombs were dropped over the local Waterside area during the bombing of Southampton. Local children were particularly interested in nding where they live and identifying if their house was near a bomb drop. On Saturday and Sunday, an original operational Valentine tank, one of ‘Hobart’s Funnies’ was presented on the cli top. It has been meticulously re- constructed from its original derelict state and is now one of the very few le in existence. e tank has an in atable ‘skirt’ which surrounds it, enabling it to be launched into the water from its Landing Cra with the skirt raised and locked into place, and drive up out of the water and onto the beach at Normandy. Once ashore, the skirt could then be lowered and retained in position for later water crossings, or discarded. On Sunday 6th June at 11:45 hrs a beautiful service of Remembrance took place on Lepe Beach at the Royal Dragoons memorial stone. Cecil Newton, now 98 years old, returned to the place where he and his comrades embarked on 3rd June 1940 as part of the D-Day landings in Normandy. Cecil read out the names of his fallen comrades, all members of the Royal Dragoon Guards, as he has done since 2006, to ensure they will be remembered. is year, a special placing his own wreath despite his age, Lt. General T.D. Hymans OBE Colonel of the Regiment, Lt. Colonel DRT Davey Commanding O cer, and Mrs Gilly Drummond OBE DL Hon FLI VMM. e Regimental Sergeant Major brought the attending Royal Dragoons to attention at the commencement, during and at the end of the service. Among the COVID-19 limited number of guests attending the service were Dan Snow, the eminent military historian, Alexis McEvoy, our local councillor and several very senior members of the Royal Dragoons. anks to the sunny weather, the whole celebration was an enjoyable and memorable occasion for all attendees. During the Sunday a ernoon three fully equipped American WW2 jeeps with a re-enactment team of enthusiastic ‘soldiers’ arrived and parked up outside the Lepe Education Centre. Children were delighted to be able to sit in the vehicles and to ask questions about them. All three jeeps were genuine restored WW2 vehicles (not replicas). Sadly, due to COVID-19 restrictions they were not allowed to publicise this celebration as they would have wished, but hopefully, in June 2022, they will be able to inform people in advance via various forms of publicity. ceremony, hosted by the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, o ciated by the military chaplain Padre John Jamieson, hosted the ceremony as part of the ‘ en and Now’ celebration of the Royal Dragoons. e regiment, in their smart uniforms attended, including the bugler in full glorious scarlet uniform, who played the evocative ‘last post’ and ‘reveille’, and two pipers wearing their kilts, playing at the opening of the service, during the ‘Laying of the Wreaths’ and at the close of the service. Wreaths were laid by Cecil Newton, who insisted on Standing with his Son, 98 year old Cecil Newton remembers and pays respect to his fallen comrades of the Royal Dragoon Guards Children enjoying all that the D-Day Lepe Heritage Exhibition had to offer. Photo courtesy of Chris Balcombe