Post by KG on Sept 20, 2018 17:48:25 GMT
Caerau Men’s Shed was proud to welcome a new member recently, 100-year-old Richard Victor Davies (born July 5, 1918).
It must be a first in Wales and even the UK to have such a celebrity join its ranks. He was awarded honorary membership by Caerau Men’s Shed.
At 14 years old, Victor joined the Royal Navy’s training ship the Warspite and after training joined the Merchant Navy in order to see the world.
When WWII broke out he joined the army (as an anti-aircraft gunner) only to be told after six months that he had to go back to the Merchant Navy because so many of its men had been killed in the war.
He served in the Pacific, the Atlantic, and as Sir Winston Churchill said “the most dangerous journey in the world” the Arctic convoys delivering supplies to the Soviet Union. He was there from September to April, seven months of freezing hell.
He was on the Polish ship ‘Krakow’ which helped in the liberation of Europe.
His ship was alongside Lord Louis Mountbatten’s when they liberated Hong Kong; they then went on to Singapore. He was at sea for a year after the war had ended.
Four years ago, he received the ‘Russian Ushakov Bravery Medal’ when two Russian third secretaries from the Russian Embassy and their families came to his home in Garth Maesteg to present it to him.
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It must be a first in Wales and even the UK to have such a celebrity join its ranks. He was awarded honorary membership by Caerau Men’s Shed.
At 14 years old, Victor joined the Royal Navy’s training ship the Warspite and after training joined the Merchant Navy in order to see the world.
When WWII broke out he joined the army (as an anti-aircraft gunner) only to be told after six months that he had to go back to the Merchant Navy because so many of its men had been killed in the war.
He served in the Pacific, the Atlantic, and as Sir Winston Churchill said “the most dangerous journey in the world” the Arctic convoys delivering supplies to the Soviet Union. He was there from September to April, seven months of freezing hell.
He was on the Polish ship ‘Krakow’ which helped in the liberation of Europe.
His ship was alongside Lord Louis Mountbatten’s when they liberated Hong Kong; they then went on to Singapore. He was at sea for a year after the war had ended.
Four years ago, he received the ‘Russian Ushakov Bravery Medal’ when two Russian third secretaries from the Russian Embassy and their families came to his home in Garth Maesteg to present it to him.
LINK