LIKE many other Echo readers, I have always admired the writings and work of the late Ludovic Kennedy.

One remarkable fact from his autobiography has always stuck in my mind.

Mr Kennedy wrote that his earliest memory, from about the age of four, was to see the British Home Fleet anchored in Scottish waters.

This was esentially the battle fleet from the end of the First World War in 1918. The severe cutbacks of the late 1920’s and 1930’s were still in the future.

With the death of Mr Kennedy there cannot be many people left alive who can claim to have seen such an impressive sight.

Truly a link with British naval history.

Martin Birtle, Billingham.