100th Birthday for Royal Navy WW2 Veteran of the War in the Pacific
A Second World War, Burma Star veteran, will be getting a special surprise when he reaches his 100th birthday on December 3rd.
At Dunkirk Memorial House near Taunton, the Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Somerset, Mr Ted Allen DL, will be presenting Captain Walter Godsal RN with a centenary birthday card on behalf of Their Majesties the King and Queen.
And a letter of congratulations from the First Sea Lord will be presented by Rear Admiral Ian Moncrieff CBE DL.
Captain Godsal, who spent 37 years in the Royal Navy, is one of the few surviving members of the Burma Star Association. In 1945 he was a midshipman on board the destroyer HMS Verulam, part of the 26th Destroyer Flotilla of the East Indies Fleet.
Eight days after everyone back home was celebrating VE Day, the Flotilla took part in the Battle of the Malacca Strait in which the Haguro, the flagship of the Japanese Indian Ocean Fleet, was sunk. At that point the end of the war was still three months away.
An Old Etonian, Captain Godsal and his late wife Pamela moved to the Exmoor village of Winsford in 1970 and both played an active role in village life. Captain Godsal took up porcelain repair and restoration and set up a studio. Both he and his wife also ran a successful business hosting paying guests in their home. Mrs Godsal died in 2004
