Last October we reported on a man’s mission to see his late mother’s grave marked with a headstone.

Peter Holbert, a writer and law courts journalist who lives in the Victorian seaside town of Saltburn-by-the-Sea in North Yorkshire, lost his mother at only 11 months old.

He arranged for a new headstone from Douglas monumental mason Steve Gregg to be placed on her grave on Wednesday, September 29, a full 80 years, six months and 14 days after his mother passed away.

This week, he is back in the island and has seen it blessed.

He has also discovered his grandfather John’s grave, in which he was interred along with his grandmother Catherine, and another Catherine, who died aged 20.

Mr Holbert presumes this is his aunt, whom he did not know of until this week.

Whilst reviews of passenger experience at Ronaldsway Airport may vary, Mr Holbert enjoyed his experience, and even avoided the delays some passengers have experienced out of Manchester.

Mr Holbert is not exactly a frequent flyer to the island – indeed, the last time he flew here was 74 years ago on a biplane airliner.

Now aged 82, he was then aged eight and was the only passenger on a De Havilland Dragon Rapide of Sivewright Airways flying from Ringway Airport (the original name for Manchester Airport).

Recalling the flight, he said: ‘The chauffeur wore tall boots and a leather cap and he led me to his magnificent black Humber Pullman car at the kerbside.

‘My father wasn’t allowed to travel with me, and at the airport I was handed over to a ground hostess who led this little boy in short pants to the aircraft boarding door and announced: “Behold the passenger”.

‘It was an open cabin with a three-man crew, a pilot, navigator/engineer and a radio operator and it was very noisy from the engines.

‘I was sitting behind the pilot and my recollection is that we were thrown all over the sky.

‘At one point I tapped the pilot on the shoulder and made my impression of airsickness by pointing a finger into my open mouth. He fished out a cone-shaped sickbag and on we flew.’

Peter’s Manx grandfather John Brady, who worked for Okell’s Brewery in Douglas, met him at Ronaldsway where the crew assured him that Peter had been very brave.

When Peter flew back home a few weeks later there were 13 passengers filling all seats on the Dragon Rapide.

After that Peter, who was later at school with several Manx boys at De La Salle College, Manchester, always travelled by Steam Packet from Liverpool to spend most school holidays with his grandfather who regaled him with stories of air battles between Spitfires, Heinkels and Messerschmidts ‘complete with all the sounds’.

He said: ‘We were not a wealthy family, but my father could hardly have sent an eight-year-old off alone on the ferries which were still loading cars aboard in a big net.’

Peter’s last flight before his hop over from Manchester with Loganair was in 2014 when he and his wife Jane flew KLM on a 12-hour trip back from Hong Kong after their second air tour around China.