70th Anniversary Event 26th May Southampton

Saturday the 26^th of May 2007

The 70^th Anniversary Commemoration of the arrival of the children in Southampton was held at Solent University Conference Centre on Saturday 26^th May. It was by all accounts a tremendous success. Some 60 niños, helpers and a teacher attended the event together with their children and grandchildren, friends and other interested parties.

The impressive list of speakers and special guests included the Spanish Ambassador, the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, the Deputy president of the Basque Government, The Mayors of Southampton and Eastleigh, Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Southampton, the author Adrian Bell, the film maker Steve Bowles and many other dignitaries.

Amongst the highlights were the unveiling of a plaque which will be placed outside the Civic Centre, dancing by a group of dantzaris who came over from Spain, and a small recreation of a campsite by a local scout troop.

A fuller account of the events will be reported here in due course, but for the meantime we are showing a few preliminary photographs taken during the course of the day, to which we will add later. We will also make available transcripts or summaries of most of the speeches.

We are providing links to the press coverage given in the Spanish, Basque and British media.

Within the next few weeks we will be setting up a SHOP page, where you will be able to see and order the various items that were available for the first time at the 70^th Anniversary Commemoration.

Download a pdf of the commemoration brochure here