Commodore David Hughes, believed to be the Royal Navy’s oldest veteran, has died, just shy of his 107th birthday. An excerpt from the obituary on the Royal Navy website:

The New Zealand-born officer was one of the last survivors of the Yalta Conference – where Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin drew up plans for post-war Europe – one of many remarkable moments in a 32-year naval career.

David Hughes was born two days before Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, the trigger for World War 1.

He joined the Royal New Zealand Sea Scouts with his twin brother John aged 14 and then the Royal New Zealand Navy as midshipmen.

After sea training with the Swedish Navy aboard the Prince Oregon, a three-mast sailing vessel, the brothers attended Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth for officer training, then on to Collingwood and Excellent for training as gunnery officers.

David was subsequently assigned to motor torpedo-boats and made three trips to Dunkirk during the evacuation as a sub-lieutenant, while his twin brother was killed as navigator of a Q ship – used to lure enemy submarines into a trap – which was sunk by the Japanese in the Indian Ocean.

He remained on the Dover Patrol, grappling with German E-boats, supply vessels, and coastal batteries, and took part in the legendary St Nazaire raid in 1942, suffering a shrapnel wound to the stomach.

Recovered, he served in Normandy and was then assigned to the staff of Winston Churchill as a liaison officer, accompanying the premier to Yalta in 1945.

After a spell on secondment with the US Navy and post-war service with the RN, he joined the MOD… but never disclosed his job due to its secrecy.

He settled in Whiston, near Rotherham, in South Yorkshire and became an active member of the nearby branch of the Royal Naval Association in Mexborough, serving as its president.

Read the complete obituary: Royal Navy veteran dies aged 106