Beacon lit at Nothe Fort as Weymouth remembers D-Day

Events were held throughout the day, with the Weymouth attraction hosting a D-Day exhibition.

In the evening Weymouth Mayor Jon Orrell read the international tribute and a beacon was lit.

Cllr Orrell gave a speech to dignitaries and members of the public at the Nothe Fort in which he jokes that as a child he used to "break into the Fort" with his friends and said his father in law later spent time as a volunteer "cleaning up his mess".

Speaking to the Echo, Cllr Orrell said it was a poignant moment as his late mother was alive during the preparations for D-Day in Weymouth.

Weymouth Mayor Jon Orrell at Nothe Fort (Image: Tom Lawrence)

He said: “I am very proud, I am very lucky that this has come up in my time in office.

“My mum, who died last year, was in Weymouth during the D-Day preparations

"She remembers the troops coming through, happy and smiling, they teased her for her red hair which she never forgave them for.

“D-Day was an example of nations co-operating with each other and the danger at the moment is nations are separating again, and those are the conditions which can bring about war. 

“We need to get back the idea of working together, the international collaboration which was shown on D-Day.

“I am very impressed in what the team at the council and the Nothe Fort have done, everyone working together, the Army, the Salvation Army, it has been a great success.

“We had various veterans at a service on Portland this morning, some very old soldiers, very poignant.”

During the evening, the Nothe Fort also hosted performances from The Decadettes and the Bovington Military Wives Choir.

The two groups joined together at the end of the evening to sing "We'll meet again."

Nothe Fort co-general manager Lucy Watkins said: "It has been fantastic.

"It has been really exciting, there has been people here whose parents were here on D-Day.

"We have a photo from D-Day and a woman came to me this morning and told me 'my dad was in that photo', which was amazing.

"We have so many stories from D-Day, it is amazing to have those connections for people."