World War One Tribute - 31st March 2012

After a wonderful week of sunshine, Saturday 31st March arrived both cold and windy. Would people turn out in this cold weather? Would the DH2 biplane manage to reach our seafront in this strong wind? We need not have worried. Our visitors were patiently waiting for us to open from 9am, a matter of a two hour wait. The doors opened at 11am and the rush began. The crowds being greeted by two of our fantastic volunteers,together with

Queen Mary, King George and of course our famous maids. We were all delighted to see all these people, who also expressed great delight with our displays, exhibits, memorabilia, costumes and of course tea and home made cakes.Members of the FOCH group had displayed as much information as was possible to display and thanks must of course go to many members of our community for allowing us to display their personal memorabilia, certificates and photographs, which brought our stories of WW1 home to Cleethorpes.

Thanks must also go to Mike for displaying his collection of WW1 uniforms and memorabilia, Gordon and friends for showing the Grimsby Chums film, Cliff for exhibiting his wonderful model of the Zeppelin, M.E.C.O for their marvellous re-enactment of the Manchester Regiment, the Harbour Lights Harmony Choir for their WW1 songs, Peter for the wonderful tunes he played on his accordion and not forgetting, Embersons for their marvellous [outside] organ and the Baptist Church for allowing us to hold this event in their church hall. All this entertainment by these marvellous people, continued through out the day. 

Last but not least, sincere thanks must go to the air display at 2pm. Pilot

Stewart Smith gave a marvellous display in the WW1 DH2 biplane. Stewart had flown the plane from Wickenby,[ certainly a feat, in the strong winds that blew along our shore], and twisted and twirled for quite some time, to the great delight of the supporting crowd, who waved, cheered and danced to encourage Stewart to carry on. We are all very honoured to see and film this spectacular air display, as this plane is only one of two in the world. The other one is in New Zealand. Stewart last flew this plane in 2011, when it was filmed by the TV people, whilst flying over to France.   Let's hope we will be honoured with another display of this plane at another of our events.