One of the oldest surviving veterans of the Second World War has told the Duchess of Edinburgh over a cup of tea how his Royal Navy ship was torpedoed by the Japanese before he was held as a prisoner of war for more than three years.
Sophie met 105-year-old Royal Marines veteran James “Jim” Wren in Salisbury on Tuesday ahead of the 80th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day (VJ Day), which marks the surrender of Japan to the Allied Forces on August 15 and the end of the Second World War.
Mr Wren survived the sinking of HMS Repulse in December 1941 but was captured by the Japanese in Singapore in February 1942.
He spent the next three and a half years as a prisoner of war and was still in captivity in August 1945 when the war ended.
When the duchess, who is patron of The Java Far East Prisoner of War Club 1942, asked if his family knew he had survived, Mr Wren said: “It was right until the end of the war until they knew I was alive.
“So they suffered all this time.”
Mr Wren sat next to Sophie at the Old Sarum Manor Care Home surrounded by four generations of his family, including his daughter Denise Dables, 69, son-in-law Andy Dables, 72, his granddaughter Kirsty Dables, 51, and great-granddaughters Freya, 18, and Ellie, 16.
The veteran caused mirth when Sophie asked what had attracted him to serve in the Navy, and he replied: “Nothing attracted me to the Navy – I didn’t want to be in the Navy.”
Mr Wren applied to join the RAF and the Army when he was 19, but was turned down.
He then joined the Navy after his uncle, a retired Royal Marine, was recalled on reserve.
After completing the eight-month training course, Mr Wren was posted to join the battlecruiser HMS Repulse in the autumn of 1940.
On December 10 1941, HMS Repulse was sunk by Japanese aircraft off the coast of Malaya, in what is now Malaysia.
Mr Wren recalled: “It was around 11 o’clock in the morning, I was having a cup of tea on the mess deck and the alarm was raised.
“I dropped my cup and as I left the mess deck, the first bomb dropped right behind me.
“Fortunately, it didn’t explode – I was able to go down two or three decks before it exploded.
“It was torpedo after torpedo,” Mr Wren added.
The veteran, who grew up in Sussex, also remembered when he was captured by Japanese soldiers alongside a group of civilians as they attempted to flee Singapore on a boat.
“It must have been awful, because you were surrounded by women and children,” the duchess told Mr Wren, who nodded.
“We didn’t know when our next meal was coming from or when our next drink was coming from…” he added.
“They had no idea how to deal with prisoners of wars, the Japanese – no idea.”
Mr Wren was kept as a prisoner in Sumatra until he was released in August 1945, after Japan surrendered.
Son-in-law Andy Dables said Mr Wren did not start sharing his war memories until he was 99.
“We are just impressed that he remembers everything – he’s as sharp as any,” Mr Dables said.
“But you wouldn’t just forget anything like that, though, would you?”
The King will commemorate the 80th anniversary of VJ Day on Friday with an address to the nation, Buckingham Palace previously said.
Charles’s pre-recorded audio message will be broadcast on VJ Day ahead of a service of remembrance attended by the King and Queen, Second World War veterans and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
