YOU might remember that on February 28 we took a closer look at a couple who played a big role in Weymouth society.

William and Elizabeth Craven were passionate about the town and left a massive legacy.

Gardener William created Weymouth landmark the Palm House and was an important figure in the town's parks and gardens department. Elizabeth went swimming off Weymouth beach every day without fail and announced she was going to swim the English Channel in 1925 - sadly an ambition never fulfilled.

It was wonderful to discover that both William and Elizabeth are still remembered in the town today. And Elizabeth's passion for swimming very much stayed in the family.

Velda Comben, who knew the couple's granddaughter Charmaine, got in touch.

She told us: "I found the article about Elizabeth and William Craven very interesting, especially as I knew their granddaughter Charmaine very well.

"Charmaine, who was Charmaine Ross McKensie and later Charmaine a’Court Sealy, taught me along with numerous schoolchildren how to swim, she taught me when I attended St John’s School in the 40s and at that time we practised our strokes while lying on benches, practised breathing by putting our faces in the wash hand basins, then marched across the road and went into the sea by the pier bandstand."

Velda has very kindly sent us some pictures from her days of playing hockey alongside Charmaine.

She said: "Besides swimming Charmaine was also a very good hockey player and I played alongside her for many years.

"I was most interested to read that her grandmother swam everyday from the beach and had wanted to swim the Channel.

"I first met Charmaine when I started playing hockey for Weymouth, we were both in the first eleven and our captain was Miss Dorothy Lodge, Dorothy didn’t encourage any players to go for county trials as she felt that would disrupt the team.

"Many years later we went for trials and most of us were selected to play for Dorset! Charmaine always played centre forward."

In one of the photos Velda sent us we can see the first eleven hockey team, taken at Redlands in 1954.

Velda also remembers 1967, when Weymouth Ladies held their first Easter Hockey Festival.

She recalls: "The men had been holding theirs at Easter for five years by then. Charmaine was part of the festival Committee, Ruth Small was the festival secretary, Ruth’s husband Geoff played in the men’s team.

"We played all our games at The Marsh, the men were at Redlands, the ladies also did the catering for drinks, light lunches and hot cross buns, this was organised by Joan Balem who was captain for many years, all the profit went into a fund to enable both the men and women to pay for an Astroturf pitch. This was finally achieved in 1997 and is now in desperate need of replacing!"

In the remaining photos sent by Velda, we can see the 1967 festival team, the 1976 festival team, a team in 1961 and a presentation for Dorothy Lodge for her 50 years with the club.

We have also included a Dorset Evening Echo article from 1983 about Charmaine and her husband Paul moving to South Africa.

It pays tribute to Charmaine's 47 years playing for Weymouth Ladies Hockey Club.

Velda tells us: "Charmaine continued playing for one of Capetown’s teams into her 60s. The Echo cutting has a really nice picture of Charmaine."

*Thanks to Velda for sharing these memories and photos of this well known couple's equally as well known granddaughter!