Down the decades, we have proudly reported on famous Island sons who have left our shores for fame, fortune and national service.

Most Islanders are aware that Baron William Penney, father of the British atomic bomb, was a son of Sheppey.

But how many know of other famous connections - men like Joseph Sutherland, a powder monkey at Trafalgar?

We can also boast of Frederick Peake, a survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade; Sir Stanley Hooker, director of engineering at Rolls-Royce; and current Royal Navy Rear Admiral Sir Kenneth Eaton.

The composer Henry Russell and Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, chief constructor of the Royal Navy between 1872 and 1885, were also Islanders.

Stanley Hooker, who worked with Frank Whittle to develop jet engines, was on the first flight of Concorde to Bahrain and involved in the first vertical take-off machine. Born in Sheerness in 1907, he attended Borden Grammar School and performed so well in the matriculation exam that the school was granted a half-day holiday.

He joined Rolls-Royce in 1937 and, despite never having seen an aircraft engine, added 30 per cent more power to the firm's legendary Merlin engine.

This was the start of a meteoric career, which in the middle of the Second World War saw the mature Sir Stanley in charge of turning Whittle's turbojet into a production engine.

In 20 months, the thrust of Hooker's jets jumped from 1,800lb to 5,000lb. After a sad break with Rolls-Royce in 1949, he joined the Bristol Aeroplane Company. There, he tugged a reluctant company into the jet age, determined to give real competition to Rolls-Royce. So successful was he that in 1966 Rolls-Royce paid £63.6 million to buy its rival.

He decided to retire at the age of 60, but was asked to stay on as a consultant. Within four years the firm was on the brink of bankruptcy.

So important was Rolls-Royce that the Government became involved and Sir Stanley went to Derby to mastermind the RB211 - a jet engine used on a series of large commercial airliners including the Boeing 747. The results earned him his knighthood.