IT was a day for remembering as more than 500 veterans of the Second World War gathered at Exbury Gardens for a special ceremony.

The purpose of the event was to present Exbury with a memorial plaque, formally marking the place of the Normandy landings at Arromanches in France.

The White Ensign flew from a flagpole in front of Exbury House, by permission of The Queen, acknowledging the wartime role of the house as the 'stone frigate' HMS Mastodon, where much of the planning was done for the D-Day landings.

Many of those present at Saturday's service had left the area of the Beaulieu River to make the historic landings.

"Many gallant men and women who left from the Beaulieu River and the Solent on D-Day in 1944 actually landed in Arromanches," said Exbury's owner, Edmund de Rothschild.

The commemorative plaque, set in a solid block of Purbeck stone, stands sentinel at the View Point, an area from which there are views of the Solent and the river.

"All our visitors will be able to see it and, at the same time, look out over the Beaulieu River and the Solent, as those embarking on landing craft nearly 60 years ago would have done," added Mr de Rothschild.

The service, on the quarter deck in front of Exbury House, was conducted by the Reverend Reg Sweet, the chaplain of St Cross Hospital in Winchester.

National standards were paraded, including those of the Association of Wrens and the LST & Landing Craft Association.

A specially carved bench was also unveiled by Mr de Rothschild and Paul Motte-Harrison, chairman of the LST & Landing Craft Association, and wreaths were laid in memory of those who lost their lives in the Normandy landings.

A reception after the ceremony saw the launch of two specially commissioned paintings by Francis Darvall, which will form the centrepiece of Exbury's tribute to all the service personnel who served their country.

The pictures will hang in a small museum being built in the grounds of Exbury Gardens.