TWO generations of a family with very special connections with Pembroke Dock were remembered at a memorial service held in the town’s Heritage Centre.

The service, conducted by retired Royal Navy padre the Rev Mike Brotherton, of Angle, was held at the family’s request following the death earlier this year of Albert Thomas Perks, whose mother, the former Joyce Lewis, was from the Pennar area of Pembroke Dock.

Before the Second World War Joyce married an RAF serviceman, Thomas Albert Kennedy, who was stationed at RAF Pembroke Dock with 210 Squadron.

The couple were expecting their first child when Tom Kennedy was killed in a flying accident at Oban, in Scotland, where his Sunderland flying boat crashed on landing just after Christmas 1940.

Their child, Albert, was born in Pembroke Dock and was subsequently adopted by William Harold Perks after he married Joyce.

Several members of the extended family travelled from Cheshire and elsewhere to take part in the service, joining local relatives. Four generations of the family were represented.

Caroline Perks, one of Albert’s daughters, said: “We were so pleased to be able to hold the service in the Heritage Centre as Pembroke Dock has such a special place in our family history and our hearts. We are very grateful to Rev Mike Brotherton for conducting the service.

“We chose Pembroke Dock because of my father’s family connections and his mother’s relatives still are living in the area. He grew up there and was very happy in Pembroke Dock. We felt that we had taken him home and that his life had gone ‘full circle’.

“My dad also served in the RAF, both in the UK and at Singapore, and all three of his children were born at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire. He left the RAF to work for ICL and we moved to Crewe in Cheshire.

“Dad retired to Gibraltar on his yacht and later moved to a marina in Spain. He died in hospital in Gibraltar last May.”