AFTER last week's article on the items that were found concealed behind a wall in The Smugglers in Wyke Regis, we've had a bit more information from readers.

The raffle ticket and poster were connected to war ship HMS Dorsetshire. And a picture of a group of people was also found.

The items were passed on by workmen renovating the pub to Ann May, past president of Wyke Regis Women's Institute, who contacted Looking Back to see if we could find out more information.

The poster advertised a performance of Twelfth Night being staged by Wyke Regis WI to raise money to 'help to float the new HMS Dorsetshire'. While we originally thought the poster was from the year 1930, online reader 'Nowlonggone' thought the date of the poster was 1942 because HMS Dorsetshire had been sunk in April of that year and the reference is to 'float the new'.

The poster also mentioned The British 8th Army and 'nowlonggone' tells us 'it only existed during WW2 and at the time were obtaining Battle Honours in North Africa.'

We have to thank reader Alvin Hopper of Weymouth for getting in touch with plenty of helpful information.

He tells us: "HMS Dorsetshire was a county class cruiser with a famous career. She was built at Devonport dockyard. She was armed with eight 8inch (203mm)guns. Also fitted were eight 4in (101mm) high angle anti-aircraft guns later augmented by octuple barelled 2pdr(1kilogram) Pom-Pom close range anti-aircraft guns, one mounting both port and starboard. Completing the armament were two sets of torpedo tubes."

Alvin tells us that unfortunately all the fire powder did not save her from being sunk by Japanese aircraft during the Second World War on Easter Sunday April 5, 1942, west of Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. Some 227 sailors were lost.

Moving on to the photograph of some sailors, also found in the renovations at the Smugglers, Alvin says that in the background you can make out what seems to be a 4.7in (120mm)gun shield, the same as that type carried by the destroyer HMS Palliser or Panther, the two ships that rescued the survivors of HMS Dorsetshire.

"Perhaps this was a picture of that same crew?" Alvin suggests.

Alvin had the honour of meeting members of the Survivors Association in 1992 in Dorchester when a graphite rendering was unveiled honouring the losses of both HMS Dorsetshire and HMS Cornwall.

He spoke to the association's chairman Mr Goddard, of Lyme Regis, who, at the time of the sinking of Dorsetshire was a signal yeoman on the bridge and spoke about the loss of the ship.

One reader suggested that this was a picture of part of the crew of an M Class submarine in front of the turret.

However, another reader disagreed that it was an M Class and thought this vessel was most likely to be a destroyer with the crew from the engine room but found the circular shape of the bridge 'confusing'.

As both Alvin and another reader pointed out, we neglected to mention that the Dorsetshire was the vessel that famously fired the torpedo that sank the German battleship Bismarck.

In May 1941 the Bismarck, which was commanded by Admiral Günther Lütjens, was sighted off the coast of Bergen, Norway by a British reconnaissance aircraft. Practically the entire British Home Fleet was immediately sent into action to intercept it. After the Prince of Wales and battle cruises Hood engaged it, the Bismarck escaped into the open sea and soon began heading for Brest in German-occupied France.

It was sighted by aircraft 36 hours later on May 27and the King George V and the Rodney, in an hour-long attack, incapacitated the Bismarck, and an hour and a half later it sank after being hit by three torpedoes from none other than the cruiser Dorsetshire. Of the 2,300 crew aboard the Bismarck, only about 110 survived.

Alvin has also informed us that unfortunately the Wyke Regis WI's quest to replace Dorsetshire was unsuccessful.

He writes: "Referring to the musical poster found at the Smugglers in Wyke Regis, at the bottom it says that funds are being raised to replace the ship. There was a fund started and included in the War Weapons Weeks national collecting that began after Dunkirk.

"Donations were given by local people to buy maybe a Spitfire or a tank. After the ship was lost, Dorset started fund-raising to replace the ship. Thousands of pounds were raised, but she was never replaced.

"There is a theory that as HMS Dorsetshire was involved in the Invergorden Mutiny in the thirties that the Admiralty put her name

at the bottom of the list for names for new ships,who knows?"

*For those who would like to read more on HMS Dorsetshire, a book by Bert Gollop and John Cannon is available to buy.