A HEREFORD-based veteran of the wartime Arctic Convoys has been honoured for his service.

Leonard Green was the only medic onboard a 132-man crew taking part in North Atlantic convoy escorts during part of the Second World War.

The 88-year-old, who worked for many years after the conflict at Special Metals Wiggins in Holmer Road, Hereford, joined fellow former servicemen in Worcester to pick up the Ushakov Medal.

The ceremony was able to take place after current Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree allowing the medals to be presented.

For Mr Green, who lives in Lugwardine, he also experienced the horrors of war from the UK as well as abroad.

Having worked with St John Ambulance as a teenager, he helped out in casualty wards watching major operations from the age of just 16.

“Friends of mine were going into the Services and I felt I wanted to go as well,” he said.

“Because of my St John experience I decided to go into the Royal Naval Medics.”

Having done his training he found himself at a hospital in Gosport, near Portsmouth, which was the nearest military hospital to the D-Day landing beaches.

“Those returning were operated on,” he said.

“Limbs were removed.”

A short time later he was sent to Southwick House, where the landings were directed from, to pick up a casualty.

“We had to bring an officer in to the hospital,”

he said. “I didn’t know but Eisenhower (later to be US President) and Montgomery (who was in command of all Allied ground forces during the D-Day landings) were there that day.”

Having joined the North Atlantic convoys, Mr Green soon found himself responsible for the health of the 132 men onboard.

“We proceeded well for a day or so. Then we hit the ice. We lost one escort and two merchant men.

“On one occasion we went to Russia. That was an experience.

“We docked in Murmansk and managed to get ashore. While there we were taken to a Russian concert and we also went skiing.”

Mr Green was given a pair of skis as a memento of his trip, and he still has them to this day.

Following the convoys Mr Green returned to naval hospital before being detailed to go to the Far East. He also spent six months in Freetown, Sierra Leone during which time he crossed the equator 94 times.

Mr Green retired from work ain 1981 but kept himself busy by using his experience to teach vocational courses.