Sailor Stan sings Queen’s praises
STAN Ford doesn’t remember the explosion, he just remembers waking up in the cold English Channel.
Moments before, the Royal Navy sailor, then 19, had been in his gun turret on HMS Fratton, which was escorting men across the Channel after the
1944 D-Day landings.
A missile from a German midget submarine hit the ship near Normandy. It sank, taking with it 31 crew members.
Stan, now 97, of Bath, Somerset, said: “I came to and I was in the water. I had to float until this little craft came by and hands pulled me aboard.”
He fell unconscious again and next opened his eyes in a field hospital in Normandy, with a fractured spine and two injured legs. He still wears callipers. Bristol-born Stan, who wed wife Eileen after the war, had two children and worked in the furniture industry, made it home in time for Christmas 1944. But a letter sent by a pal got there first – and gave his mother the wrong idea.
Stan explained: “He said I had damaged cheeks so she thought I’d been disfigured. I did correct her… it was the wrong cheeks!” Tonight, Stan will read a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal British Legion’s annual Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall.
He said: “The Queen set the highest possible standards for duty and service.”