THIS week in 1979 saw the funeral of Earl Mountbatten, last Viceroy of India, who had been murdered in an IRA bomb attack nine days earlier.

In the Adver’s final edition that day, the service at Westminster Abbey was given a single column on the front page.

The rest of the broadsheet space was given over to a funeral at a more modest place of worship, Christ Church in Old Town.

Raymond Dunn, a 20-year-old Parachute Regiment member from Swindon, had been among 18 British soldiers who were murdered in an IRA bomb ambush on the same day as the Earl. That atrocity happened at Warrenpoint near the Irish border.

“It could be no other than a moving ceremony,” we said.

“There was the appalling grief of his family. There was the Union Flag draped over the coffin. There was the stoic reserve of his colleagues who bore him aloft.

“And there was the enormous presence of civic leaders and ex-servicemen’s organisations.”

He was remembered by those he loved and was loved by as a fine young man who enjoyed building model aircraft, swimming and making people laugh with a gift for mimicry.

His mother, Doris, told us: “He was very good at drama and would keep you amused all night impersonating people.

“One of his ambitions was to form a pop group and he had just bought a £700 guitar.

“Swindon was his town and Wiltshire was his county. Stonehenge was one of his favourite places and he took lots of photographs of it.

“It’s funny how he always wanted to be in the army. Raymond just lived for it, and I shall always remember the Captain telling me what a natural he thought he was. Then when he left school it was virtually straight into the paratroops.”

Had it not been for the murders and their aftermaths, the main story of the week in newspapers all over the country would surely have been the 40th anniversary of the outbreak of World War Two.

The Adver ran a number of interviews with local people from all walks of life who remembered that time, ranging from military personnel to somebody who had organised a morale-boosting concert party featuring a talented schoolgirl who would later be known as Diana Dors.

We also followed a WAAF veteran, former sergeant Freda Reeves, on a sentimental journey.

In 1979, Freda was a 57-year-old wages department worker at engineering firm Square D, but during the war years she had worked at RAF Coastal Command. Her duties had included processing radio traffic during the fraught Battle of the Atlantic, as Nazi submarines attempted to starve Britain by destroying inbound cargo vessels.

The Adver sent a reporter and photographer with her to RAF Lyneham, where she met some of the young service personnel and was pleased to learn that they were allowed more home comforts than she had been.

Her verdict? “They have a smashing life. If I was 30 years younger I’d certainly join up all over again.”

Recalling the war, she said: “We weren’t as exciting as Fighter or Bomber Command, but it was still a vital job.”

Freda jumped at the chance to have a go at her old job, as teleprinters were still in use.

An admiring sergeant said her speed was still very much up to scratch.

In a week when the news agenda was overwhelmingly sombre, lighter stories were understandably few and far between, but we managed a few.

One was about a committed car customiser from Wootton Bassett, Mick Wright, who had just won a prize in a Welsh show’s light van category.

Mick, who worked as an engine fitter at RAF Brize Norton, had taken an ordinary Morris Minor van and turned it into a chrome-laden machine he called Gold Dust.

Not content with fitting a sports car engine and body modifications including flared wheel arches, he turned the interior into something resembling a miniature luxury hotel suite, with wall-to wall buttoned upholstery, a couch, a tiny television and a bar.

His future plans, we revealed, included doing something similar with a much larger van.

We also told the story of an RSPCA inspector, Jeremy Gomersall, who was called to a family home in Iffley Road, Swindon, to wrangle a swan which had crash landed in the back garden.

He managed the job in spite of swans having a reputation for being bad tempered at times of stress.

An Adver photographer was on the scene, and managed to capture the moment when the bird, firmly tucked under Jerry’s arm, tried to grab his tie.

As Jeremy had longish fair hair, we were happy to point out that the two bore an uncanny resemblance to Rod Hull and Emu.

The swan was released at a nearby stretch of water, none the worse for its adventure.