My aunt owned a house opposite the Buddle Inn at Niton Undercliff. It was called 'Puck's Hill'. Several RAF officers based in IOW & Ventnor were billeted on her there & I was lucky enough to be allowed to stay with her during the school holidays (awaiting my Matriculation results) when I was 16. It was great fun - particularly the dances in the hall which then adjoined the Buddle Inn. This was 1944.

This aunt often described the assembling of the D Day seaborne forces as seen from her garden. She remembered the sea being full of large & small boats. She and others knew at once what massive & dangerous action was to take place.

On the other side of my family, my great grandfather, Arthur Benjamin Mayhew, working on the local newspaper & a member of Ventnor Rowing Club, was the first man to row single-handed right round the Island. This feat was celebrated for forty years after the event in 1881. My account - as found in the Isle of Wight Mercury on the 40th anniversary - is recorded on the Ryde Rowing Club website.