Roses at sea for remembrance

Red roses have been taken to the final resting place of more than 800 men lost when the Royal Oak was hit by torpedo fire in 1939.

Some of the 834 dead from the events of October 14 at Scapa Flow have relatives in South Holland and some joined armed forces supporter Harold Payne on the trip.
He had been fundraising to make the journey to the Orkney Islands before the pandemic.
During a previous event Mr Payne, of the Anglia Motel, Fleet, had met a woman from South Holland whose 18-year-old brother died on the Royal Oak and she had never been to the site.
The battleship sank quickly after it was hit at nearly 1am on October 14 and the wreck is a designated war grave with the waters above it a place of remembrance.
Mr Payne’s party took 1,000 red roses as a mark of respect for the crew members who never returned.