Friends of Captain Pugwash filled Rye railway station last week for the informal launch by Rye’s Mayor Councillor Bernardine Fiddemore of a light-hearted display featuring characters and scenes from the Captain Pugwash books and TV animations.
The initiative came from Kevin Barry, the Marshlink line’s development officer for the Sussex Community Rail Partnership based at Rye Station, who was also behind the recent creation of the garden outside the station dedicated to John Ryan, the creator of Captain Pugwash and many other stories that delight children of all ages and a much loved resident and benefactor of Rye.
As his widow Priscilla Ryan remarked, it was a really family affair as the cartoon style posters are beautifully executed on sheets of A3 card, invisibly stitched together by John Ryan’s daughter Isabel, helped by the rest of her family. The exhibition livens up the walls of the station and will last for a month. Kevin said : “We had a great response to the John Ryan memorial garden which we opened in April, and with the invaluable help of the family we have now gone a step further and decorated the whole of the booking hall in Pugwashiana”.
“I remember Captain Pugwash very well from my childhood so it was great to be involved in this event”, said Kevin Boorman, chairman of the Marshlink Rail Partnership, ” and there can’t be many stations which are decorated with pirates, even unsuccessful ones as Captain Pugwash was.
“We are very grateful to Southern Rail for their support, to Kevin Barry for making it happen, and of course to Priscilla and Isabel for all they had done. It really brightens up the station. The exhibition runs until August 26 so I would encourage anyone who wants to remember their childhood, or show their children, or grandchildren, who Captain Pugwash was, to travel to Rye station – preferably by train”.
Photo: Kenneth Bird