On Sunday 5th May, the Lord-Lieutenant attended a Remembrance Ceremony for the ORP Blyskawica at the memorial on Cowes Seafront. The High Sheriff, MP and other Island dignitaries also attended.
Representatives from the Polish Embassy in London and from Gdanzk where ORP Blyskawica is a museum ship, were joined by many of the local Polish community.
The ceremony, organised by the Friends of the ORP Blyskawica Society, annually commemorates the defence of Cowes and East Cowes by Polish destroyer ORP Blyskawica, an event which took place on the night of the 4/5th May 1942 claiming the lives of 70 townspeople from the two towns.
ORP Blyskawica and her sister ship ORP Grom were built in a local Isle of Wight shipyard, J.S. White & Co.