NOT long ago we shared photos of Portland Harbour's lighthouse, which was recently given a spruce-up.

Jeanette Matthews reminded us of when the Naval Dockyard Lighthouse was given a face lift in 1995.

We also featured the harbour when Brian Knight got in touch to find out more about a Fleet Review in honour of the King in the 1930s.

With this in mind we can only thank Looking Back regular Peter Fry for sharing his copy of The Royal Navy at Portland Since 1845 by Geoffrey Carter with us.

The section on Fleet Reviews is very much of interest. The author points out that the wide expanse of Weymouth Bay, adjacent to the harbour and naval base at Portland, provide an admirable setting for reviews of the fleet.

In 1932 King George V, accompanied by the Prince of Wales and Prince George arrived in the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert escorted by destroyers Windsor and Westminster. The ships under review were the battleship Nelson, the Royal Yacht, the Battleship Valiant and the cruiser Exeter. The aircraft carrier Furious was also present and 27 destroyers were assembled in their flotillas.

Following the death of the 'Sailor King' George V, the uncrowned Edward VII visited the fleet in November 1936 before his abdication.

In July 1938 the now-crowned King George VI visited the Home Fleet at Weymouth. The fleet consisted of HMS Nelson, her sister ship Rodney, Royal Oak, Royal Sovereign, Revenge and Ramilies. Older cruiser HMS Cornwall and the newly commissioned Southampton, Glasgow, Sheffield, Newcastle and Aurora were also present. The lone aircraft carrier was HMS Courageous.

On Wednesday, August 9, 1939, King George VI came to Weymouth once more to review His Majesty's ships. He travelled from Balmoral and embarked at Bincleaves Pier to join the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert.

After visiting aircraft carrier Courageous he visited cruisers Effingham and Cardiff and the Destroyer Exmouth. In he afternoon he reviewed the fleet from the Royal Barge. More than 130 ships were assembled, of which no fewer than 42 would be sunk in the impending conflict of the Second World War.

Thanks to Peter Fry for providing us with this information.