Ken Benbow (99), of the Royal Naval Association, and Richard Brock (100), a soldier from the East Lancashire Regiment, were invited to the Radio Times Cover Party at Claridges in London last week. The two VIP’s had featured on the magazine’s covers for D-Day last year.
Ken, from Garstang, joined the Royal Navy as soon as he was old enough, initially protecting the Atlantic convoys. He was then involved in supporting the D-Day landings and ended up in the Pacific theatre leading up to VJ Day. His ship, HMS Crane a sloop, covered 147,000 miles and was twice hit by torpedoes which failed to detonate.
Richard, from Preston, joined the Army as an infantryman and trained hard for the D-Day landing on Gold Beach. He had his 20th birthday on a Navy ship riding out a storm in the Thames estuary which delayed the landings. His unit took part in the bitter fighting through Normandy and then onwards through France and Germany.
The two veterans travelled to London in style, being treated to First Class train travel by Avanti, where they ran into Ben Wallace, former Secretary of State for Defence, and then went on to be whisked across London by the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans, to their suites as the guests of Claridges.
They enjoyed an evening of wonderful entertainment, meeting many other celebrities who were delighted to chat to the war heroes.
Ken said,
“It was a really wonderful night and we were treated like royalty. We even met Sir Lenny Henry!”
The next day, they had a meeting with Al Carns MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Veterans and People, and their own local MP, Paul Foster, a former Royal Engineer. Mr Carns talked about Ken and Richard’s military careers, and his own as a former Royal Marines Officer.
They pair were then treated to lunch in the sumptuous surroundings of the Naval and Military Club before returning home for a well-earned rest.
If you are from a Naval background and would like to join the Royal Naval Association go to: royal-naval-association.co.uk/join-us
Contact the WWII veteran co-ordinator on cml@rnassoc.org if you know a Naval veteran who would like to be included in events like this.
