Another man done gone

I want to follow-up my last message, why do we do this? this weekend just past, 15th February we lost a dear friend, Valentin Soldatov, the first man on the left in the picture of the veterans of Allied Victory taken last May on the Quarterdeck of HMS Belfast. Valentin was conscripted into the Wartime Northern Fleet at the age of 14, he underwent training at the Naval Academy in St. Petersburg before being posted to motor torpedo boats in the Arctic Theatre. These boats, made by Vosper, Elco and Higgins, the latter two from the USA, were brought by Arctic convoy ships to Murmansk and Archangelsk where they did sterling work on inshore patrols. Valentin Soldatov was promoted to boatswain of his boat. He was awarded these orders,  "Red Star", "Patriotic War Medal for the Defence of Soviet Transarctic" and the "Ushakov Medal" for valour. He left the Soviet Navy in 1952. He made nine visits to London to celebrate Victory with his Allied comrades-in-arms. Now he has gone, we will miss him. for all these men and women, its one minute to midnight.

Help us reunite these last surviving heroes one more time.