A wartime pilot with Pembrokeshire family connections has been sharing his memories of maritime operations at Pembroke Dock’s Flying Boat Centre.

Eighty-nine-year-old Brian Lort, who now lives near Oswestry, was accompanied by his daughter Jennifer Limond, and a cousin Michael Lort, who lives at Gumfreston, to the new centre, where models and photographs of his favourite wartime aircraft, the Catalina, are on display.

Brian said: “It was a very special experience to visit the centre and to meet some of the enthusiastic volunteers who run it.”

Brian, who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, did two operational tours on Catalina squadrons, in west Africa in 1943 and in the Shetland Isles in 1944.

His training brought him to Pembroke Dock in 1944 and while in the RAF Reserve in the 1950s, he spent a fortnight with a Sunderland squadron that was based in the town.

“By chance, this squadron was supporting a scientific expedition to Greenland and I was fortunate to fly in a Sunderland to Greenland. It was a memorable flight to end my association with the wonderful flying boats,” he said.