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Displaying items by tag: UK General Election

In the UK, ballot boxes for the final General Election constituency to announce its results are on their way to be counted after stormy conditions passed.

In the constituency of St. Ives (Cornwall), adverse weather had meant boats and a Royal Naval Air Service helicopter from the outer islands of the Isles of Scilly were unable to reach the main island of St Mary’s.

Andrew Walder, a skipper for Tresco Boats, ferried the final votes from St Martin’s and St Agnes this Friday morning after conditions had “much improved”.

For more the Irish Examiner reports including footage from onboard the inter-island boat trip.  

Published in News Update

About Commander Bill King, Solo Circumnavigator

William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving submarine commander in the Second World War - in charge of the British Navy's T-class Telemachus that sank a Japanese sub in the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Sumatra, in 1944.

Decorated many times for his service by the end of the war, King became a trailblazing solo sailor.

At the age of 58, he was the oldest participant in The Sunday Times Golden Globe Race sailing Galway Blazer II, a junk-rigged schooner he designed himself.

After a number of abortive attempts, including an incident with "a large sea creature", he finally completed his solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1973.

Beyond his aquatic escapades, King settled with his wife Anita (who died in 1984, aged 70) at Oranmore Castle outside Galway after the war, where he later developed a pioneering organic farm and garden to help tackle his wife's asthma.

The round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King died on Friday, 21 September, 2012, aged 102.