East Hampshire District Council honoured the work and sacrifices of the Merchant Navy by flying the Red Ensign over its Penns Place headquarters in Petersfield.

Council vice-chairman Cllr Ingrid Thomas raised the flag on Merchant Navy Day on September 3 and spoke of the seafarers in her family. She said: “One of my great-grandfathers was a master mariner and sailed out of Charlestown in Cornwall, while another was a coastguard. My father was a Royal Marine and my cousins both volunteer for the RNLI in Cornwall, so my family knows a little bit about life at sea and the perils of the ocean.”