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 7,000^th visitor to the Town’s unique Flying Boat Centre. 

 

 
Mrs Sybil Church shows photos of the Angle Airfield Sunderland
to Flying Boat Centre volunteers Graham Clarkson (left) and
Ron Boreham and her son, HughMartin Cavaney Photography.

A Welsh woman now living in New Zealand has followed the flying boat trail half way round the world to Pembroke Dock - becoming the 7,000^th visitor to the town’s unique Flying Boat Centre. 

Sybil Church, who lives near Auckland, set her sights firmly on ‘PD’ after hearing about the centre. Her late husband, Ron, was a wartime wireless operator who flew from Pembroke Dock on Sunderland flying boats. 

“He always spoke very fondly of ‘PD’ and I really had to visit,” said Sybil, who was accompanied by her son, Hugh, who lives at Oswestry. “I am so pleased to see that the flying boat story is being so well remembered here and I brought along some of Ron’s records for the Centre’s archive 

In May 1943 Ron Church - known as ‘Hughie’ to squadron colleagues - helped make aviation history as a member of a Sunderland crew, captained by Australian Gordon Singleton, which landed on Angle Airfield, to the west of Pembroke Dock. This was the only occasion when a Sunderland was successfully put down on land, rather than the usual water. 

After her centre visit Mrs Church went on to Angle to view a memorial plaque which commemorates the landing of her husband’s aircraft in 1943. 

Opened in June 2009, the Flying Boat Centre has been a great success. “We have already exceeded our initial visitor target, almost a year ahead of time,” said Graham Clarkson, one of nearly 50 volunteers involved in running the centre for the Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust. “Visitors from all over the world find their way to us and the interest in flying boats, and the family connections, is remarkable.” 

This project has received funding through the Rural Development Plan for Wales 2007-2013 which is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). This is administered locally by Pembrokeshire County Council. 

The centre project is hosted by Milford Haven Port Authority for the Sunderland Trust. The Trust is steadily developing plans to recover a wartime Sunderland - which sank in a gale nearly 70 years ago - from the Milford Haven Waterway.

Flashback to 1943. The Sunderland flying boat from No 461 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, after its successful landing on Angle Airfield.  Sunderland Trust Archive.

FROM: John Evans, Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust, 01646 623427.

The Pembroke Dock News Portal Team