Appeal for 100th birthday cards for Second World War veteran Dougie Shelley

Well-wishers are being urged to send 100th birthday cards to a Second World War veteran who served in the Arctic Convoys to make his surprise celebration extra special.

Dougie Shelley, who has no known surviving family, joined the Royal Navy at 17, served as a seaman gunner and said earlier this year: "There's not many of us left."

The sailor, of Southend in Essex, was on a ship in Hong Kong when news came through of Germany's surrender, and said in a previous interview that it "couldn't have been better".

He said: "The war killed so many people, it's unbelievable. All around, the Americans, Russians, all the Allies, the same with the Germans.

"But you were doing a job, the same as they had to. It's either kill or be killed.

"When we heard about victory in Europe, everybody got together and we all had a good old drink up and jolly up, and couldn't welcome it much better."

Mr Shelley will turn 100 on 23 September.

John Hawes, chairman of the Southend branch of the Royal Naval Association, is appealing for people to send birthday cards for Mr Shelley, which will be shown to him at a party on the day.

Mr Hawes told Sky News Mr Shelley was the branch's "last Arctic convoy veteran and also he was at D-Day".

Mr Shelley "will love this", Mr Hawes said, adding that the veteran is "very talkative and loves to talk about his naval career" and "likes a tot of rum on a daily basis, so we're hoping that when he joins us, we can have a tot of rum with him".

Mr Hawes is hoping to collate at least 100 birthday cards and may get some help from France.

He has contacted an English teacher at a school in Normandy to ask students there to send cards, as they do to British veterans at Christmas.

Dougie Shelley was a gunlayer, Mr Hawes said, and was responsible for aiming a ship's guns, serving on the Royal Navy Destroyer HMS Milne.

He "would have gone through quite a bit" and, among other things, would have been responsible for "chipping ice off the guns" while "wearing his duffle coat and maybe three or four pairs of gloves.

"He did tell me about ships being torpedoed, and it brought a tear to his eye when he saw what had actually happened."

He was also on the Milne when it was deployed off the Normandy coast in support of the D-Day landings, and "might have been shelling some of the fortifications there", Mr Hawes said.

"Dougie really had his work cut out there being a gunlayer."

A tea party is being laid on for the big day, with Mr Hawes, who was a chef and baker on the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, down to bake a Victoria sandwich birthday cake, and a lot of guests are expected.

"Dougie will have a lot of friends there, especially shipmates from our branch," Mr Hawes said.

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Mr Hawes said he "really deserves something, he has been one of our founder members way back in 1980 I think it was when the actual club opened.

"He's always been with us on Remembrance Sunday in his wheelchair, and somebody's pushed him up to the cenotaph at Southend.

"I think he's going to thoroughly enjoy it, he really will, he'll be over the moon," said Mr Hawes.

"Dougie always likes to let everybody know he's there, and this will blow his socks off I think."

Mr Shelley's carer Paul Bennett said he was on the HMS Milne on D-Day "supporting the chaps going off to land in craft ashore in Normandy, and he was a gunner keeping the skies clear of enemy aircraft".

The birthday cards can be sent to the Royal Naval Association club, 73-79 East Street, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, SS2 6LQ.

(c) Sky News 2025: Appeal for 100th birthday cards for Second World War veteran Dougie Shelley