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WW2 veterans celebrate milestone and share stories with today's sailors
17 July 2026
World War 2 Royal Navy veterans were invited to celebrate another milestone in their remarkable lives surrounded by friends, family and today’s generation of sailors in Portsmouth.
Fine food, perhaps a tot of rum, cake and a card and letter of gratitude for their service as the final members of Britain’s greatest generation from the head of the Royal Navy, First Sea Lord General Sir Gwyn Jenkins were all part of a memorable few hours of celebration.
Dorothy Walsh, 100, served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (aka the Wrens) with Dorothy involved in the Ultra codebreaking operation, operating the ‘bombe’ computer used to break German Enigma coded messages at Stanmore, an outstation of the headquarters at Bletchley Park.
Len Chivers served in the Royal Navy for 34 years, survived the ‘human torpedo’ attack on battleship HMS Queen Elizabeth in Alexandria, then barely five months later, the loss of destroyer HMS Kipling, sunk by German bombers off the Egyptian coast.
The attack left him with multiple burns and a fractured spine. It did not stop him returning to sea in veteran cruiser or reaching the impressive age of 102.
Radio operator Ken Arkell served in the Home Guard with an anti-aircraft unit as a teenager and witnessed the bombing of HMS Collingwood in Fareham – a tragedy commemorated to this day by the Royal Navy – before joining the Senior Service aged 17½.
Aged 102 Robin Boodle served in the Royal Navy throughout WW2, notably in the Battle of the Atlantic and Far East.
He was visibly moved as staff from the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity, who organised the unique party in HMS Excellent’s wardroom, presented him something he’d longed for, but didn’t have: the white beret of an Arctic convoy veteran.
Finding a beret had proved no problem. Finding the correct badge to fix to it had – the association representing Arctic veterans’ disbanded a couple of decades ago. The charity persevered and it made the sailor’s day.
Also present were two veterans not celebrating a birthday, but invited to join festivities as they are members of a select group of WW2 naval personnel who’ve passed the century mark - bringing the total age to 605.
101-year-old ex-Wren Sybil Parker was part of the team supporting the Normandy invasion, working in the tunnels beneath Portsdown Hill in Portsmouth where vital messages were relayed between staffs and the front line.
Henry Rice, 100½ – he hit his century back in February – was invited to join festivities as over the past decade the small group of veterans have bonded to become good pals.
At the time of her service – and for decades after – Dorothy couldn’t talk about her role (“We were sworn to secrecy – for life,” she said emphatically. “It was long, long after the war that I could tell my family.”) Breaking the Enigma code remained classified until the mid-70s.
“I was proud to have served in the Wrens – but then everyone who served was.”
That was a common theme of the celebration. Pride and duty. Henry shared stories of his WW2 service with HMS Excellent personnel – of amphibious ship HMS Eastway supporting the Normandy landings.
“There was some tremendous banging and we asked ourselves: What the bloody hell was that? It was HMS Belfast opening up with her guns, firing right over our heads,” Henry said.
It’s an experience hopefully underwater warfare specialists Able Seaman Archie Hill and Peter Calvert won’t endure.
“You cannot fail to learn from this generation,” said Archie. “Henry seems to have travelled the world and his stories are very cool.”
Peter added: “What’s been surprising is the similarities – the ways of working, the experiences, the ways of speaking. The language of sailors today is very similar to what it was 80 years ago.”