News Update - 30th March 2026

We would like to thank everyone who supported us on our King’s Award Assessment day. We will not hear the result until it is the King’s birthday in November. Thanks for all your comments on Facebook. In the meantime, the work goes on, and we will do our best to continue our work in the cemetery. This week, it is the last of the coffee mornings at the Bowling Club run by the Rose Garden Borough Park Group.

Thanks to Mike and Jackie Carling and their small team for making everyone welcome all these weeks. Of course, it is not goodbye from us as we work closely together, and their support and friendship mean a lot to us. So see you soon, gang.

Work goes on in the cemetery, tidying, planting, and litter picking, keeping everything in order. One thing we cannot do anything about is the damage to the taps. Every time the plumber is called out, it costs the residents of the area. The scented border near the park is looking good. How many volunteers have worked on this area over the years? Thanks to them and all the donations we have received from supporters, we have had muscari, hyacinths, and daffodils.

Looking good.

There are two young men lying side by side in their graves in the cemetery. The headstones are identical. They died as part of the Santampa crew, which was a tanker travelling from Middlesbrough to Newport on the 23rd April 1947, and was wrecked in a gale off Skern Point. All 42 crew members, together with the crew of 8 from the Mumbles Lifeboat, lost their lives in this disaster.

The men in our cemetery were so young, and what stands out is the fact of their ages, and already they had 9 voyages between them, such a tragic loss. There are many facts to share, but perhaps not here.

Arnie’s Dad travelled to Wales for a commemorative service and stood up and thanked the people there for remembering all the crew. CHARLES FREDERICK SHINNER (20) of West Dyke Road, Redcar, was on his fifth voyage; previously, he had worked at Dorman Long and taken a prominent part in local athletics. ARNOLD NICHOLSON (19), Galley boy of Thrush Road, Redcar, had been at sea for nearly four years. He was a well-known member of Redcar Literary Institute, and this was his fourth trip. One of the headstones is not so easy to see; we will soon remedy this.

The epitaph this week is taken from Arnold Nicholson’s headstone, ‘Simply to Thy cross I cling’

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