‘Naval family’ urged to support funeral of 104-year-old WW2 veteran Norman

Alan Norman Martin – known to friends and family simply as Norman – served through most of World War 2, and most of it in the Mediterranean.

At 104, he was one of the last men to see action in the bitter battle for Crete in May-June 1941, serving aboard battleship HMS Warspite.

The Navy suffered heavily in trying to stop the German invasion of the island with Warspite herself badly damaged by the Luftwaffe and forced to retire.

The battleship – which earned more battle honours than any other single ship in RN history – was subsequently sent to Seattle to undergo repairs, an experience Norman particularly enjoyed, as he told his family decades later.

Warspite returned to action as did Norman, but he was drafted to new minesweeper HMS Spanker in 1943, remaining with her till the war’s end.

The Algerine-class vessel’s wartime service was focused exclusively in the Mediterranean, clearing minefields around the islands of Elba and Sardinia, supporting the ‘forgotten D-Day’ (the invasion of southern France in August 1944) and, in the final months of WW2, swept mines from ports and waterways on both sides of the Adriatic.

Demobbed in early 1946, Norman worked for many years as an engineer at Leicester knitwear machinery factory Stibbe.

A keen fan of the city’s rugby union team, the Tigers, and an avid dancer into his 90s, in retirement Norman was equally at home in the peace of his garden, where he cultivated tomatoes, rhubarb, sweet peas and damsons – which he gladly shared with friends and neighbours.

He travelled the world with his late wife Alice and never tired of sharing his naval ‘dits’ with his family – three children and seven grandchildren.

In later life he became well known in Glenfield – on the western outskirts of Leicester – trundling the streets in his mobility scooter.

He died at home on January 22nd. A memorial service celebrating his life will take place at Glenfield Methodist Church at 1pm on February 19, followed by committal at Gilroes Crematorium, Groby Road, Leicester.

The Royal Navy will be sending representatives, but Norman’s family would be delighted to see veterans/associations as well.