Preserving the past

I love history, granted it's not everyone's cup of tea, but something that fascinates me. I'm pretty much interested in everything, however it's mostly English history that fascinates and intrigues me, all the way back to the distant and occasionally not so distant past. Which is why I was delighted (for once) that Medway council decided to part with some of my cash and restore the Medway Queen.

BBC.

                                             

A paddle steamer famous for its exploits in saving more than 7,000 Allied troops during the Dunkirk evacuations of 1940 is to return to the River Medway.

Medway Council has secured £900,000 to bring back the Medway Queen from dockyards in Bristol next year.

The 1924 vessel made seven crossings, rescuing more than 7,000 men from the beaches of France.

Councillor Jane Chitty, cabinet member for economic growth, said the ship was part of Kent's naval heritage.

Restoration work on the ship's hull began in Bristol last April with money from a £1.86m Heritage Lottery Grant.

Medway Council applied to the European Regional Development Fund for a grant to complete the restoration and bring the ship home.

'Naval heritage'

The Heroes 2C project is being carried out in partnership with the Medway Queen Preservation Society and MidKent College.

Ahead of the ship's arrival, college students have been using their skills in woodwork and engineering to restore parts such as handrails and lamps.

During its final crossing in 1940, the Medway Queen was badly damaged and limped home on a single paddle.

The ship was refitted at Chatham Dockyard and served out the war as a training vessel.

It returned to paddle steaming on the Thames and Medway after the war and was decommissioned in 1963.

It's history projects like this that will help eventually to restore English pride in past achievements, not the watered down anti-English so called imperialistic history that socialist English hating teachers have foisted down on our kids today. History should be a wonderful subject enthusiastically taught to our kids showing (yes warts and all) where the people of this land came from, what they did and why we are.It's lack of this knowledge and ignorance of our roots that has enabled past governments to push through legislation against the Magna Carta and Bill of Rights as well as hand away sovereignty to a foreign oppressor.
If we lose our past, we lose our future.