Treasury Minister Eddie Teare MHK has represented the Isle of Man Government at commemorations in Dunkirk marking the 75th anniversary of Operation Dynamo in World War Two.
The mass evacuation of 340,000 Allied servicemen from the French coast in May 1940 involved eight Steam Packet vessels which between them rescued an estimated 25,000 troops while under fire from Nazi forces.
Three of the Manx ships were lost in the space of less than 24 hours – the Mona’s Queen, Fenella and King Orry. The anchor of the Mona’s Queen was recovered from the sea off Dunkirk in 2010 and now forms the centrepiece of a memorial at Kallow Point, Port St Mary.
The Isle of Man Government has been represented at a number of wartime commemorations in the last two months. In April Policy and Reform Minister John Shimmin MHK attended the Centenary of the First World War Gallipoli Campaign at the Cenotaph in London, and earlier this month Chief Minister Allan Bell MHK was at Westminster Abbey for a service marking the 70th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day.
