The Royal Air Force’s 100th birthday will be celebrated in special ways at Pembroke Dock, once the RAF’s most famous flying boat station.

The Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre is staging a special open day on Sunday April 1 - the actual 100th anniversary of the formation of the RAF.

On that day in 1918 - during the First World War - the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service were amalgamated into the Royal Air Force.

In the 1930s, the RAF established a flying boat station in the former Royal Dockyard at Pembroke Dock and for nearly 30 years a succession of flying boats operated out of the Haven, including the famous Short Sunderland.

That RAF history is told at the Heritage Centre in the Royal Dockyard Chapel where a new exhibition, entitled ‘Many Nations, Many Trades’, will be on view this year.

This focuses especially upon the men and women of many nations who served at ‘PD’ - from across the Commonwealth and beyond.

Several historical groups have been invited to display at the Heritage Centre, along with the Air Training Corps.

On Sunday, April 1, the Heritage Centre will host a series of short talks on the subject of the county’s aviation heritage and, weather permitting, two local walks taking in the town’s military history sites.

For further information, see the Heritage Centre website www.sunderlandtrust.com and follow on social media via Facebook www.facebook.com/sunderlandtrust and Twitter www.twitter.com/PDHeritageCent. The Centre can also be contacted on 01646 684220.