Falklands sailor gets hat back 42yrs after homecoming

ROYAL Navy warships were scrambled to shadow a Russian fleet sailing close to the UK coast just as the coronavirus crisis kicked off, military chiefs said yesterday.

Nine British vessels were involved in the “concentrated” operation to stalk seven Russian ships through the English Channel and North Sea.

The Ministry of Defence said there had been “unusually high levels of activity” in the waters.

A Navy Merlin helicopter swooped over the vessels earlier this month. Frigates, refuelling tankers, offshore patrol boats and the Navy’s spy ship HMS Echo

HAPPY Richard Farrand

A FORMER sailor has been reunited with the hat he lost during beery homecoming celebrations at the end of the Falklands War more than 40 years ago.

Richard Farrand, 60, was a 23-year-old leading engineer aboard the famous aircraft carrier HMS Invincible during the conflict.

He spent 166 days at sea during the war between Britain and Argentina in 1982, and lost his hat amid chaotic scenes as they sailed back into Portsmouth. A military artefacts dealer named only as Jon traced Richard, whose name was in the hat, via LinkedIn.

Dad-of-two Richard, of Marsden, West Yorks, said: “He said he sold everything else in the lot and made a profit and so I could have the hat for nothing... postage was on him. It has restored my faith in humanity. What a gesture!”

He said of his ship retaliating to an attack in 1982: “You could feel the front of Invincible dip violently as her Sea Dart missiles went off.”