Welcome to the July edition of Marine Matters from Coleman Marine Insurance, a Gallagher company.

This month we talk to Jeremy Waters, Honorary President of Poole Flying Boats Celebration (PFBC) and author of ‘Parkstone on Sea: Salterns, Sandbanks & Seaplanes’, a local history book which is now in its fourth print run.

We also meet Jonathan Purvis, Coleman Yacht Account Handler, and learn about his ambitions to gain a private pilot licence!

If you would like to find out more information about our business and its services, please contact us on 01202 497410 or visit our website for more information by clicking here

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Jeremy Waters, Honorary President, Poole Flying Boats Celebration

Jeremy, tell us a little bit about yourself

I’ve been married to Gabby for 50 years and have two children; a son Rupert, 48, and daughter Jodie, 46.

I first moved to Poole with my parents at the age of 17. My father was very ill and we moved for the climate.  I trained as a chartered surveyor, working for Fox & Sons in the area for 12 years, before moving to London, becoming a Partner in an international firm of commercial property consultants. I always kept a boat on Poole Harbour and 30 years later, when retiring, the pull of Poole brought me back, it was inevitable!  We found a home fronting a muddy backwater of the harbour called the Blue Lagoon and, in due course, my son Rupert and his family followed us from Fulham to live in Mudeford. Jodie married an Australian and they live near Byron Bay, on the East Coast.

Where does your interest in local history come from?

As soon as I bought our property I was curious to know the origins of the Blue Lagoon. This led to wider research on the local history of the area, much of it carried out in Poole’s Local Studies Centre, which is part of Poole Museum. They have the most wonderful archive, entirely free to use, including maps, all sorts of books on Poole and other local information. I gave talks to local organisations about what I had discovered,  and people kept asking me if I had a book which included the many  historic photos I used. I quickly realised that there was no book that covered the development of the Parkstone area, so I set about writing one.

Creating and writing ‘Parkstone on Sea’ took a year of my life. It was much harder work that I ever thought it would be. Once you start to put history on paper you realise that there are many gaps in your knowledge, requiring yet more research. However, it was well worth the effort and enabled me to share more than 250 historic photos. Many are postcards that I’ve collected from postcard fairs, some come from Poole Museum, and even more from the Andrew Hawkes photo archive (this library of some 10,000 photographs is currently being put online via the Poole Museum website). All profits from the sale of my book go to local heritage charities, such as Poole Flying Boats, Poole Maritime Trust and the publishers, Poole Historical Trust.

Tell us about the Poole Flying Boats Celebration Charity

Poole Flying Boats Celebration Charity was set up by a group of friends in 2006 to research, celebrate and make publicly available the history of the flying boats and sea planes which operated on Poole Harbour during and just after the Second World War. We will be taking part in an upcoming celebration on 15th August on Poole Quay, organised by the Society for Poole, to commemorate the 75^th anniversary of VE day and VJ Day.

Could you tell us some history about Poole Harbour and the airport

Poole Harbour was, for nearly 10 years between 1939 – 1948, the country’s only international airport, providing regular scheduled civilian flights to North America, Africa, the Middle East, India and the Far East, as far as Sydney in Australia.

The advance guard of Imperial Airways arrived in Poole Harbour in September 1939, when a fleet of launches brought equipment around from the Solent.  The move was completed in January 1940, when the government took over Imperial Airways and its smaller rival, British Airways.  The new company was incorporated as a state-owned airline: British Overseas Airways Corporation.  Its administrative offices were in Airways House at No.4 Poole High Street (now Poole Museum), where they remained for the next ten years.  There is a Blue Plaque, unveiled by the Mayor of Poole, to record the birthplace of BOAC – which has today become British Airways.

During the war the airport was used mostly for VIPs, mail and wartime supplies and freight.  It was also used for military personnel, and the airport’s last wartime job was ferrying prisoners from Japanese prison camps back to Poole. Many prominent people passed through the Poole Harbour facilities, including the King, General De Gaulle, Lord Louis Mountbatten and Anthony Eden. The flights were also used by senior government officials and foreign dignitaries, including Major Charles Brooke, the White Rajah of Borneo, who had escaped the Japanese advance in the Far East. The new President of Burma came here just post-war to negotiate independence for his country. In 1947 there was even a very special celebrity passenger – a panda, arriving from China.

Winston Churchill is rumoured to have flown from Poole, but there is no record of Churchill ever landing in Poole, although it was meant to happen. In January 1942 he had been to the USA to meet President Roosevelt.  On the return journey, he was flown on a BOAC Boeing flying boat to Bermuda, where the battleship, the Duke of York, and an escort of destroyers were waiting to take him home across the Atlantic.  He was so impressed with both the flying boat and its pilot, he asked if it could fly him all the way back to Poole. He was told that, with the right weather, maximum fuel and minimum passengers, yes, it could.  With time pressing and at least 20 U-boats known to be on the route home, he opted to fly, against the advice of his aides.

Initially all went well, and Churchill even was allowed to take the controls, but as they approached Europe, they encountered heavy cloud and were still over water when the navigator thought they should be over Southern England. He advised a sharp turn north, and eventually they spotted Plymouth, where they set down safely.  It was a narrow escape: another 5 minutes on the original course would have taken them over France and the German anti-aircraft batteries of Brest.  Then, because the flying boat was now approaching the coast from the south, the RAF thought it was a German bomber, and sent up a flight of Hurricanes to shoot it down.  Fortunately, they couldn’t find it in the cloud!

How many boats would be based here at any one time?

There could be 8- 10 military flying boats on the harbour at any one time, based at RAF Hamworthy at Lake, and usually only 2 civilian ones. There would be 2 BOAC flights a day which would leave Poole early morning and 2 flights which would come in most evenings – one flight to the Far East and the other from across the Atlantic.  These were all controlled from The Harbour Club, at what is now Salterns Marina.

Only one flying boat was ever destroyed in the harbour by enemy action. This was in 1942 – a single Heinkel bomber did a reconnaissance of the flying boat airport and bombed the one boat at anchor. It didn’t actually hit its target but was very close, sinking it and taking the unfortunate night watchman with it.  The Heinkel was then shot down by anti-aircraft fire from the port.

What’s the difference between a flying boat and sea plane?

Many people get flying boats and seaplanes confused. Flying boats are large, take up to 75 passengers and land on their belly. Sea planes are small with a crew of 2 – 6 and land on floats. There were both on the harbour during the war and must have been a magnificent sight.

• To find out more, go to pooleflyingboats.com

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Name: Jonathan Purvis

Role: Yacht Insurance Broker – New Business

How long have you been in the business?

Coming up to 5 years. I started at Coleman Marine in the Yacht team in October 2016

What’s your marine career background?

I was completely new to the marine industry when I started at Coleman Marine and it has been a steep, albeit very interesting, learning curve. The first few months were spent learning the basics of both insurance and boating. This ranged from boat building, surveying and navigation to the basic principles of insurance and everything in between.

What’s the best thing about your job?

I like speaking to and meeting new people and the marine industry allows for a lot of that. There are normally a lot of events each year such as boat shows where we can meet clients and colleagues from across the industry which are great fun. I also think we have a fantastic team in Poole and my colleagues are a great bunch of people to work alongside. The level of expertise in each department is really impressive. Lastly, the culture at Coleman Marine is excellent and is very focused on the welfare of its employees and servicing the client in the best possible way.

Use three words to describe yourself

Reliable, resourceful, stubborn!

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

Professional rugby player or a helicopter pilot. I don’t think many people think of being an insurance broker when growing up but it is a gem of an industry.

Who do you most admire?

Lots of people for loads of different reasons. Anyone who has rowed the Atlantic. Ross Edgley is another person that springs to mind – he completed the Great British Swim in 2018 becoming the first person to swim around Great Britain (6 hours on, 6 hours off for 157 days straight) which I think is an amazing feat of endurance!

Tell us something about yourself that we don’t know

I have a real ambition to get my private pilot licence – so watch out!