AS promised last week, here's the letter I recently received from Alan Thompson, Woodbridge, Suffolk.

"Dear Jeff…following our chat yesterday, I am enclosing photocopies of my father's handwritten memory of the loss of the Milford Viscount. It was produced at the request of my brother David, who, at the time, was a regular contributor to Fishing News and World Fishing.

“In a covering note, my father apologises for his poor grammar and spelling, but points out that he left school at 13, and was cook on a sailing smack at 14.

“The day after war was declared, we as a family, and my dad's crew, left Lowestoft in two reserved compartments for Milford via Paddington.

“On arrival we found that his intended trawler had been requisitioned by the Admiralty, and he was unemployed. We took up lodgings in Priory Road, and dad began a search for another skipper's berth. Fortunately, due to his previous seasonal fishing from Milford, he was well known to the local trawler owners, and Eddie Carter gave him a skipper's job on one of his ships.

“Although we didn't know it at the time, Milford Haven had become our new home, and we grew up in a small terrace house in St Annes Place, Hakin.

“Both of my sisters, my brother and I, all went to the Grammar School and benefited from (looking back) the quality of the teaching staff, and the discipline maintained by the head master, Roger Finney. For serious or persistent offenders, the 'swish' (headmaster's leather belt) was an effective deterrent. Imagine what today's politically correct industry would do with this! And in another situation, what would Health & Safety have to say about schoolboys crewing up Tom Sinclair's Northmark at the expense of their homework!

“My two sisters married local boys, and brought up their own families in Hakin, whilst my brother and I left home, with him going into journalism, and me the Merchant Navy.

“One of my best schoolday friends was Victor Davies, who lived opposite me in St Annes Place. He now lives with his wife Marion in Steynton Road and we keep in regular touch.

“I have to thank Victor for helping me to use the Morse Code when we exchanged messages by flashlight from our facing bedroom windows. In fact, he did such a good job that on my first sea trip, I was comfortable with exchanging signals with the notoriously fast ex-Naval signallers at the Aden Pilot Station.

“Well Jeff, I could go on and on, as the years I spent in Hakin until going to sea in 1949, are still so clear in my memory, but returning to the point of this letter I would ask you to look at my father's comments on Mr J C Ward, the-then managing director of The Milford Steam Trawling Company. I believe that gentleman still has relatives locally and it may bring them some comfort to know what a sensitive and caring person he was, and how the Viscount loss must have contributed to his premature death."

Thank you Alan, that's a great TRM contribution, and as for your father's letter, WHAT I REMEMBER ABOUT THE LOSS OF THE MT MILFORD VISCOUNT…By Skipper H L Thompson. ‘Milford Knight,’ as I don't want to cut it down in length, I'm carrying it forward, and will use it in full next week.

As a point of interest, your good friend Victor, and his wife Marion, at one time, just happened to be my immediate neighbours, and I still have a chat with him when our paths cross in town.

This week in TRM Trawler Corner, for the Thompson family, is the Milford Knight. M176 A steel-sided trawler built in 1936 in Selby. 146 tons. Length 101'.

Landed at Milford from May 1947 to Dec 1948. Skipper..Harry (Wampo) Thompson.

November 1939 was requisitioned for anti-submarine duties.

News cutting from Western Telegraph of April 1949.

"Mr Billy Lawrence, Robert Street, bosun on the Milford Knight, was badly injured in an accident at sea last Thursday. The trawl was being hauled and it is understood that the messenger hook parted and struck him. Skipper Harry Thompson immediately put the trawler about and when the vessel came into the Haven on Friday, Dr W Burnett Evans went on board and diagnosed a suspected fractured pelvis. When the trawler docked alongside the Hakin stage, bosun Lawrence was put on a sea stretcher and lifted by crane to the waiting ambulance. After attention at the county hospital he was allowed to return home and is now under medical attention."

The Milford Knight was broken up in Nov 1968 in Lowestoft, and here's a snap of her.

Now something for all lovers of Pembrokeshire football.

Here's a cracking photo, courtesy of Nigel Roberts, of a 1947 Hakin Utd team.

Names given. B/R, L-R: R. Goodridge; W. Jewells; K. Wonnacott; G. Roberts; R. Jones; I. Edwards and Dai Lewis. F/R: D. Roberts; F. Walker; ? Howells; J . McLean and W. Goodridge.

Cheers Nigel.

Now it's time for our teasers. The answer last week was...a Bottle…and toasting their successful replies are…Avril Sturley, Les Haynes, Joyce Layton, Joan Earles, Elinor Jones, John Glover, Tricia Hawthorn, Anne and Jets Llewellyn, Charles Weatherall, Margaret and Phil Jones, and Gerry Thomas.

Many thanks to all who got in touch.

Les Haynes has kindly dropped off a batch of teasers for me to toy with, and here's one of them.

The day before yesterday I was 20. Next year I will be 23. What day is my birthday?

And finally, as this summer's weather has smiled on us, allowing lots of families to frequent the Rath paddling pool, I thought I'd re-show this old snap of the same facility from days gone by…with Scotch Bay and Wards Yard in the background.

That's me done and dusted, more next week, and, as well as all the other regular TRM features, I promise that we'll soon be returning to the wonderful Army Cadet recollections of Lt Col Doug Joyce.

See you.