Family members of one of the longest serving volunteers at Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre have made a generous donation in his memory.

Pat James, of Pembroke Dock, had been a volunteer since the earliest days of the Sunderland Trust, firstly at the Flying Boat Interpretation Centre and then at the Heritage Centre. He died in July in his 90th year.

With an engineering background - also having served in the REME and a one-time glider pilot - Pat was the perfect recruit to the volunteer team. He joined other stalwarts whose painstaking efforts transformed many artefacts recovered from a sunken Sunderland into unique museum exhibits telling a story of the aircraft and its crewmen.

A special project which Pat enjoyed was working on a rare Vickers machine gun which had been in seawater for 70 years.

“Pat was a great colleague who put heart and soul into his volunteer role,” said Trust Chairman Graham Clarkson. “He quietly went about his tasks in the workshop but could also make his presence known with a hammer when it was needed!”

Friends from the Heritage Centre team were unable to attend the funeral in Haverfordwest, Pat’s home town, but paid their own special tribute by lining up in Heritage Centre uniform at the Cleddau Bridge as the cortege passed by.

Two of Pat’s children, Pearl Findley-James and Anthony James, recently visited the Heritage Centre to present the donation collected among the family.

Pearl, who travelled from her home in Victoria, Australia, to be with her father shortly before he passed away, added: “Dad loved being part of the Heritage Centre crew – he had such a great interest in all things military and aviation and so enjoyed working on conserving parts of a Sunderland flying boat, an aircraft he well remembered flying in Pembrokeshire skies.”