Admin - if not appropriate, please remove from page. Henry George Edwards lives in Turriff, but during one of his recent stays at Durnhythe, he was honoured to receive the medal in the photo. Here is his story as told by his wife Sue. Henry joined the Navy at 17 (saying he was 19, like so many other men) He was a gunner on The Wild Swan, until she was sunk in June 1945, and the men spent 15 hours in the Atlantic through a long dark night. They lost about 40 men from exposure, and Henry said he survived because he was young, and it was summer. If it had been winter, no one would have come through it. The Wild Swan shot down six enemy planes - more than any other ship during a single action, before she sank. Henry is a Naval veteran who served on the destroyer HMS Byron protecting ships taking vital supplies to Russia, not only with military equipment, but food and medical supplies too. As well as having to contend with enemy aircraft and U Boats, they had to contend with extreme weather, having to chip ice from the ship, so she would not capsize. He is among the sailors being presented with the Ushakov medal, named after a Russian admiral from the 1800 who never lost a battle, and is awarded to those showing bravery and valour during wartime. He was not well enough to attend the ceremony in Aberdeen, so the Consul General Andrey Pritsepov said he and two of his officers would travel from Edinburgh to decorate him personally. It was meant to take place at The British Legion in Turriff, but as he was in Durnhythe at the time, they made the journey there. They were very sincere men, and asked Henry lots of question about his service on these dangerous Convoys, including asking him what was the worse thing about those times in the Artic, and Henry said, It was the weather, we coped with the enemy, but the weather was the worse enemy! and the Consul General said that the Russian people were still grateful today, and that they would not have managed to survive without the help that the British Naval gave to them.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 23:52:38 +0000