Navy hero joins veterans on other side of world

A ROYAL NAVY veteran from Plymouth has travelled around the world to pay his final respects to fallen comrades.

Victor Gray, now 85, is one of dozens of former Second World War sailors who have jetted off to Singapore and Malaysia on a trip dubbed 'the Last Hurrah of the British Pacific and East Indies Fleet'.

It is the final official visit the veterans will make to the region as a group – 65 years after they battled Japanese bombers.

The commemorative visit sees 58 former servicemen paying emotional tributes to the 120 friends and colleagues who were killed there. The two-week trip sees the veterans – many of whom are now well into their nineties – travelling to Singapore and the Malaysian island of Penang, where captured Allied forces were held in a prisoner of war camp.

from plymouth herald UK Tuesday, February 02, 2010, 09:00