It wasn’t all bad

More than 2,500 women from 23 countries stripped off on a secluded beach in Ireland last week, to smash the record for the world’s biggest skinny dip. The annual event on the sands at Magheramore, south of Dublin, was started by cancer survivor Dee Featherstone in 2013 to raise funds for cancer charities. This year it raised s312,000. “We are all different shapes and sizes and ages, and it was just super,” said Deirdre Betson, one of those who braved the 12°C waters.

A Sikh Coldstream Guard has become the first to take part in the Trooping the Colour in a turban. Charanpreet Singh Lall marched alongside more than 1,000 other soldiers at the annual parade in London to celebrate the Queen’s birthday last Saturday. The 22-year-old, who was born in Punjab, India, but grew up in Leicester, wore a black turban with the ceremonial cap star on it to match his regimental comrades’ bearskin hats. He said his family had attended the event and that it had brought tears to his mother’s eyes. “I hope that more people like me, not just Sikhs but from other religions and different backgrounds, will be encouraged to join the Army,” he said. “I have never been made to feel different or left out.”

A man who fell in love with a derelict castle as an 11-year-old boy has now bought it so that he can preserve it for the nation. Mark Baker became entranced by Gwrych Castle in Wales while playing in its ruins 22 years ago. As a teenager, he wrote books about the 19th century Grade I building, and met the Prince of Wales and Tony Blair to discuss its future. He founded a charity to save it, and last week it was finally able to buy Gwrych. Now an architectural historian, Baker plans to restore the castle and open it to the public.