Schomberg Society

On Saturday afternoon I travelled down to Kilkeel for an event organised by the Schombrg Society to mark the 70the anniversary of the Battle of Britain. I was met at Reivers House by Jim Wells and Jim Donaldson and after hearing about the latest improvements to the building we went outside to watch the parade of local bands, flute pipe and accordion, and historic military vehicles.

The main event was in a field at the other end of the town and the warm weather and excellent programme was appreciated by the large crowd of people who had come along. There was an exhibition of military memorabilia, a display by the Wild Geese sky diving team and performances of music and dance. This was extremely well organised - a good event, on a beautiful day in a beautiful setting at the foot of the Mournes - and it was a credit to the society.

At the time of the Battle of Britain the people of the area had contributed £5,000, an extremely large sum of money in those days, to the Belfast Telegraph spitfire fund and one of the planes was named the Mountains o Mourne.

On the platform with me was Tommy Todd MBE, aged 93, a war veteran who served with the RAF.