A pledge made two years ago has
been fulfilled with the return to Pembroke Dock of
Australian visitor Vivienne Creighton.
Vivienne, from Sydney, New South
Wales, first visited ‘PD’ in November 2009 and was
delighted to discover the new Flying Boat Centre.
“I was the 3,000th visitor to the
Centre which had only been open a few months,” said
Vivienne. “I promised to return and exactly two years
later I am back and delighted to find that the Centre
has had 20,000 visitors to date.”
Vivienne is following in the
wartime trail of her late husband, John, who was a
navigator on Sunderland flying boats with the famous 461
Australian Squadron. This time she spent three days in
the town, meeting up again with friends from the
Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust which runs the Flying
Boat Centre.
Another highlight for Vivienne was
to hear the Pembroke and District Male Voice Choir
perform at a concert at the local Golf Club, and she
also was taken on a whistle stop tour of many parts of
Pembrokeshire courtesy of newly made friends Sue and
Leigh Border, of Pembroke Dock.
“It is marvellous to see what
progress has been made, in addition to the large number
of visitors,” she added. “My husband had such happy
memories of Pembroke Dock and its people and, all these
years on, I am experiencing the same welcome here. It is
like my second home.”
In New South Wales Vivienne has
linked up with others who have flying boat connections
and has helped raised funds for the Sunderland Trust and
its heritage projects. She brought with her donations
raised through the efforts of Anne Flaherty and family,
other recent visitors to ‘PD’.
Caption:
Vivienne Creighton, from Sydney,
Australia, shows a photograph of her husband’s wartime
461 Squadron which is displayed at the Flying Boat
Centre, Pembroke Dock. With her are, left to right,
Centre Volunteers Malcolm Miles, Pam Maynard and Baz
Clark.