Before we diverted our attention for a week to focus on VE Day memories, we were remembering good times at Weymouth beach over the years.

Mrs Thelma Brown of Weymouth got in touch and has come up trumps with some lovely memories of beach life.

Her parents Bill and Mary Harvey owned a boating and bathing business called Kellys, which was near the Pier Bandstand. Thelma and her sister Wendy's first few summers, apart from the war years, were spent on the beach with her parents.

In the mid 1940s another photographer, Mr Meech, was operating between the Jubilee Clock and the Bandstand, Thelma remembers. "I know nothing more of him apart from that he lived in Melstock Avenue with his family and always wore a blue jacket,"she writes.

Thelma has a number of photos which were taken by Mr Meech and by Mr Chambers over the years.

She writes: "It was great fun learning how to handle a rowing boat properly and my friend Pat Rogan and myself used to enter the regattas that were put on by the council for a few years.

"You had to row from the Bandstand to the Pleasure Pier and we could usually beat the boys (great satisfaction!). The prizes for females were either Tweed perfume (ugh!) or silver coloured tea caddies (one of which was still in use in 1960).

"In the late evenings we would go swimming and then dash down to Shooters fish and chip shop (on the corner of Chelmsford Street) for our suppers. Wendy often had her birthday parties on the beach, which were always well enjoyed.

"Lost children (either crying and often a bit smelly if you get my meaning) were taken either by my mum or my friend Marion and I to the lost children's hut on the sands to be greeted by a relieved grateful parent. Mum kept a small supply of nappies, knickers and underpants for these occasions!

"Another friend Audrey Bilke and myself were often sent by dad to collect boats that were either blown too far from the shore or couldn't be handles, even sailors who always had very red faces when brought ashore by a couple of girls (more satisfaction), folk on the beach would either laugh or applaud!"

And there's an interesting fact about the lads who were employed by Thelma's dad, she tells us.

"A couple of them ended up on television," Thelma writes.

"One of them was Norman Bowler who played Frank Tate in Emmerdale and another was Geoffrey Hutchings who became a Shakespearean actor and was also in several TV plays.

"Carnival times were great - we would all watch the parade and then out into the bay to watch the fireworks - then - more fish and chips and lemonade.

"The sunshine (it did rain some days), the happy holidaymakers, many of whom became good friends, made for a good life and are remembered as very happy times."

Thelma writes that also mentioned in our previous article were Mr Percy Rule and her paternal grandfather Roderick Harvey, who was also a boatman in the early 1930s, who she knew well. There was a Mr Damen running a business as well whose descendants are in business locally dealing with window blinds, not boats!

It seems as though Thelma's grandfather Roderick Harvey was a bit of a hero as well. She sent us a clipping from nostalgia column in the Echo from 1965, referring to 35 years ago when he saved many people from drowning.

*Thanks to Thelma for sharing these happy beach memories with us. Do keep them coming by emailing me at joanna.davis@dorsetecho.co.uk