Tributes to Cosham Royal Navy veteran Leslie Munden after he died, aged 104

Lieutenant Leslie Munden risked his life time and time again during the war to do his part to transport vital aid to needy countries.

The proud naval veteran, from Cosham, was either being attacked in freezing seas on Arctic convoys or dodging relentless attacks from Nazi and Italian forces on aid missions to Malta.

Born in Fratton, Leslie started his naval career at the tender age of 16.

When war broke out in 1939, the naval electrician was on board the cruiser HMS Effingham. The ship was scrambled and soon played a key role in supporting British troops in Norway.

However, on May 18, Effington ran aground. Leslie escaped but the grounded cruiser had to be destroyed by her fellow ships to prevent her falling into enemy hands.

Leslie returned to Portsmouth, to spend a short period at the shore base, HMS Vernon - which was bombed while he was there, killing 65 people. Miraculously, Leslie escaped with a scratch on the head.

In February 1942 Leslie was transferred to destroyer HMS Matchless, which joined one of the first Arctic convoys to Murmansk.

He was involved in some of the most important naval actions of the conflict, including the sinking of the feared German battlecruiser Scharnhorst off the North Cape of Norway in December 1943 and the operation that inflicted heavy damage on the mighty battleship Tirpitz in April 1944.

Speaking of his time in the Arctic convoy. Leslie’s son-in-law David Darlow said: ‘Gales, mountainous seas, blizzards, the ship's rigging would freeze and icicles hung from every surface. And U-boats lay in wait. If a ship was sunk in those waters it meant instant death. And many were. On his first outing, protecting 25 merchant ships from the U-boats, three were sunk. Death came within minutes.’

The convoys proved so deadly that they had to be suspended.

Matchless was switched to the Malta Convoy, which ‘proved to be out of the frying pan into the fire’, David added.

‘The island was besieged by Germans and Italians, but the people were starving and somehow the navy had to get food to them,’ said David.

HMS Matchless was one of four ships hit by mines as they reached the harbour entrance. One sunk, the other three limped towards the harbour.

Leslie spent an enforced two months in Malta while his ship was repaired – then back to the Russian convoys.

On Christmas 1943, his ship ran into the feared German battleship, the Scharnhost, which two years earlier had sunk HMS Glorious, killing 2,000 men.

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After a vicious battle, the German warship was destroyed.

The following spring Matchless was involved in a successful mission to destroy German battleship Tirpitz, which was hidden away under camouflage in a Norwegian fjord.

After the war, Leslie remained in the navy until 1968, when he transferred to the Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment on Portsdown Hill.

Leslie married Dorothy Amos, a WAAF who he met in Aden during the war. They lived in Cosham and had two children, Doreen, now married to David Darlow, and Pippa, who is married to Dave Ridgway.

His funeral was on Thursday, June 30.