Do you remember the articles in March and April concerning a pleasure cruiser called Anne that was moored in Tenby during the 1930s? She became one of the ‘little ships’ in the evacuation of Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk, 1940. Yet after decades of assuming that she must have sunk during the operation, two years ago Annie Gabb, granddaughter of the owner, P. J. Darby, located the boat after which she had been named - abandoned in a boatyard near Shepperton.

To continue the story, Ken and Carol Newman have sent a cutting from the Halesowen Chronicle, published on May 11. In it reporter Toby Neal pictures how the Anne would have been involved in repeatedly picking up soldiers from the beaches and taking them to larger ships waiting off shore. Annie adds that the boat had some bullet holes and there was damage to the hull from having been run up the beach.

After he had seen the photograph of the Anne in the Tenby Times, Steve Lewis identified the skipper as his uncle, Sammy Lewis. According to the Halesowen Chronicle, it was Sammy who sailed her from Tenby to Ramsgate, although he was later killed in action aboard the torpedoed HM Trawler Argyllshire.

As part of the article, Annie describes how in June 2015, after being inspired by a conversation with a man at Tenby Lifeboat Station, she started investigating online. She discovered that the Anne had not sunk and had in fact taken part in the 70th anniversary pilgrimage to Dunkirk and two years later, in 2012, had joined in the Queen’s golden jubilee celebrations on the Thames.

But after the Jubilee, the once heroic boat had been towed up-river to Shepperton and abandoned. When Annie found her, she was rotting away - another year and she would have been only fit for firewood - she was cheap to buy, but the restoration was costly. “It’s been absolutely worth every penny,” said Annie. Her first voyage on the boat she saved took place recently; destination Windsor.

Much as she would like to donate the boat to Tenby for the sake of heritage, the unavailability of a mooring makes this impossible, so Annie has decided: “I’m going to keep her at Windsor. They have a classic boat event at Henley, and I hope to take her to that and, in 2020, if I can still walk, I hope to take her back to Dunkirk for the 80th anniversary.”