DURING Easter 1941, wartime leader Winston Churchill paid an unexpected visit to West Wales. After stopping in Swansea to view the bomb-shattered town centre, Churchill and his retinue – which included his wife and daughter – then boarded a special sleeper train for Whitland.

From Whitland the party travelled to Cardigan via the picturesque Cardi Bach railway, and then on to the nearby weapon-testing range at Aberporth which had opened two years previously. Here they witnessed a demonstration firing of newly-developed solid fuel rockets out across Cardigan Bay.

While the local tradition that Churchill visited Amroth in 1943 to watch a practice for the D-Day landings has never been verified, details of this 1941 railway excursion to West Wales have been uncovered by historian and writer Roger Penn and will form the basis of his forthcoming lecture to the Pembrokeshire Historical Society.

Roger is a native of Whitland who took up historical research and writing after a 34-year career in Lloyds Bank. His first book described 100 years of life and medicine at Whitland’s Dolycwrt Surgery, and this was followed by the biography of his father, Dr G K Penn, Dolycwrt’s longest-serving general practitioner.

His talk will be based on his latest book Churchill’s Secret Wartime Visit - to West Wales, Cardiff and Bristol during the Darkest Days of World War II which will be published in November.

The talk will be held in the Pembrokeshire Archives building in Prendergast, Haverfordwest on Friday, November 6 at 2.30pm. All are welcome.