Captain Philip Roberts DSO (RFA Ret.) has been presented with a bottle of Tenby Harbwr Brewery ale ‘RFA Sir Galahad’ by Mr. Ray Poole, at the recent Royal Fleet Auxiliary Sir Galahad Officers Association 35th annual dinner and Reunion, held at HMS Excellent, Whale Island, Portsmouth.

Captain Roberts was the master of the ship when it was bombed during the Falklands War on June 8, 1982, with the loss of 48 lives and Ray, now living in Tenby, was the father of Welsh Guardsman Gareth Poole, who was one of those fatalities.

Captain Roberts led the appeal for a new RNLI lifeboat, ‘RFA Sir Galahad’, which was stationed at Tenby from 1986, with Ray and his family moving to Tenby the following year, and they both met for the first time in 1988 when Capt. Roberts brought the replacement RFA logistics ship ‘Sir Galahad’ here for a visit. They have remained friends ever since and when Ray designed and commissioned the memorial plaque in the new lifeboat house, in memory of both the ships which were being retired from service in 2006, he invited Capt. Roberts to have the honour of unveiling it.

With his wife Barbara, they were invited as guests of honour to the reunion, and he had the idea of taking along a few bottles of the local ale for the occasion, so spoke to Mike Evans, of Tenby Harbwr Brewery, and came to an arrangement whereby he could present a bottle to each of the retired officers present. It all went well on the night and after his obligatory speech, Ray presented each of them with a special poppy remembrance bag and a warning not to look inside until he had related the background of the contents.

All were thoroughly grateful and full of admiration for both the presentation and the thoughtfulness of the Tenby Harbwr Brewery in commemorating the name of RFA Sir Galahad in this memorable way. A very big thank you to both Mike and Laurence for their kindness and co-operation.

The following morning, Ray and Barbara had to dash up to the Falklands War Memorial Chapel at Pangbourne College, near Reading, to attend the annual remembrance service and reception, where they were presented to the Duke of York in recognition of Ray’s work in tracing over 70 of the next of kin of servicemen who died during the conflict, in order that they could be awarded with the Elizabeth Cross medal which was established by HM The Queen in 2010.