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Saving the Medway Queen

A BRAND new DVD containing two great films Saving the Medway Queen and Guardian Angel, about Paddle Steamer Medway Queen has just been released. The Medway Queen’s hull is being rebuilt in Bristol with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and this DVD has been produced with the support of the EU Interreg IVA ‘Heroes of the two Seas’ programme and the GMBU.

The first film, subtitled 25 years of the Medway Queen Preservation Society, is a 30-minute look at the history of the ship and the Medway Queen Preservation Society. It recalls her colourful days in service and the darker days in disrepair and under threat. The story is told in the voices of some of the many people who fought to keep her in existence for long enough to see her into a secure future. The film looks at the current rebuild of the vessel in Bristol and provides an update on the plans to return her to the river Medway. It also includes accounts by Dunkirk veterans who were rescued by the ship during the evacuation.

The second film, Guardian Angel – Accounts of the Medway Queen at war, the Heroine of Dunkirk is a 15-minute film containing three separate accounts of the ship’s role in Operation Dynamo, compiled by veterans Alf George, Kit Reid and Eric Woodroffe. The film shows these veterans visiting Bristol to see the ship being rebuilt and at a moving event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the evacuation.