A coffee morning in the Skateraw Hall in Newtonhill was a sell-out to raise funds to buy a bench in memory of Newtonhill-born Alistair Urquhart who died recently. His autobiography tells of his experiences in World War 2 as a prisoner of the Japanese. He worked on the Burma railway, was torpedoed, and survived the atomic bomb. His book is well worth reading.

He refers in his book to recalling his fond memories while he was a prisoner of war of being on the beach at Newtonhill, so appropriately the bench is to be planted on the beach. The coffee morning raised more than £300.