Aldwick honours war hero

Former Lieut Noel Cashford RNVR said he was pleased the memory of Lieut Walter Prior was kept alive each year on the anniversary of his death.

It was on December 22, 1945, that Lieut Prior Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve was killed by a wartime mine.

The explosive device had come ashore near Dark Lane. It had been moored to a groyne when the stormy sea caused it to come adrift.

Lieut Prior (22) and a rating, Wireman Banks, were attempting to again secure the mine to the groyne when it blew up.

The tragic incident has been remembered annually in recent years in a service at a memorial plaque to Lieut Prior in a wall at the southern end of Dark Lane.