THE vagaries of the British weather and two cancelled visits to the Milford Haven Waterway by her cruise ship certainly did not deter an Australian visitor from making a long-planned visit to the Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre.
Vivienne Creighton, who lives in Elanora Heights, New South Wales, was twice thwarted by unseasonal weather conditions in early June which led to the liner Prinsendam cancelling Haven stopovers.
“I was so disappointed,” said Vivienne, whose late husband, John, was a navigator stationed with the Royal Australian Air Force’s famous 461 Squadron at wartime Pembroke Dock. “I specifically booked the cruise as I knew it was scheduled to visit Pembrokeshire.”
Instead the ship headed for Belfast and Scottish destinations before returning to home port Amsterdam.
Determined to visit ‘PD’, Vivienne delayed her return flight, flew to London and headed west by train.
“I just had to see the Heritage Centre - I had heard so much about it from a friend, Anne Flaherty, who came over last year. And I was so impressed in what has been achieved since my previous visits and was given such a wonderful welcome.
“I was met at the station by volunteer Barry Clark and given a personal tour of the centre’s newly-opened Sunderland cockpit replica by Rik Saldanha, who headed the volunteer team which has created it. This gave me a real idea of what it would have been like for my husband and other airmen in those wartime days.”
She brought with her a significant addition to the Heritage Centre Archive - the personal story of Australian airman Ron Prentice, who flew Sunderlands with 461 Squadron, compiled by an RAAF historian.
This she presented to Heritage Centre volunteer Margaret Black, an honorary member of the Australian Sunderlanders groups.
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