My hero, my father

With memories and stories of VE Day still coming in to Craigie, I have heard from Chic Brodie who says: “On VE Day, I am always reminded by the words of my hero, my father, who served on the Arctic convoys to Russia.

“He always reminded me that victory to secure our future might have been slightly different had it not been for the stoicism and the strong resilience of the Russian people on the Eastern front.

“Winston Churchill said the convoys were ‘the worst journey in the world.’ So they were and he, too, recognised the Russian contribution to winning the Second World War.

“My dad, a Dundonian, Able

Seaman Charles Brodie served on the Greenock-built HMS Royalist which was commissioned in 1943. One of his Royalist shipmates was the author Alistair Mclean, who wrote the graphic tales of the dangers faced by the convoys in his book HMS Ulysses.

“Dad always spoke highly of the heroic Russian people in Murmansk and Archangel and, after years of pursuing the Ministry of Defence, I managed to secure his Arctic Star for services rendered which I felt he would be delighted be presented to the Russian people.

“I feel humbled that those from Russia, based in Scotland, that I have met in a different capacity have seen fit to place his Star along with his photograph, his certificate for crossing the Arctic Circle and my first toy which was a woollen Scottie dog he made from the discarded (but washed!) socks of his shipmates in a major maritime museum in Russia.

“These tributes now, have a home in the Museum of St Petersburg. Pride doesn’t cover it!”