Pete Harness has waited 70 years for recognition of his wartime service and then was given less than a week to organise a trip to Downing Street to receive his Arctic Star medal from the Prime Minister. He travelled to London yesterday, Tuesday, March 19th, along with other surviving veterans to be presented with the medal in recognition of the sailors' bravery in keeping supply lines open to the Eastern front. The medal has been a long time coming. In fact there are only about 200 veterans still alive as Pete was one of the youngest men to be involved.

Pete lied about his age when he tried to join the Royal Navy in 1943 but his father intervened as he had been in the first World War and thought Pete would hate it.

He said:?"I can understand why my father said that. He was on HMS Pathfinder, the first ship to be torpedoed in the first World War and he was sea-sick on every trip."

For the full story please see this week's Ross Gazette.