Family of one of country's oldest sailors urge naval community to attend his funeral

At 104, Alan Norman Martin – known to friends and family simply as Norman – was one of the last men to see action in the battle for Crete in May-June 1941, serving aboard battleship HMS Warspite.

Now the family of one of the country's oldest sailors are urging the naval community to make sure there is a big turnout at his funeral.

He died at home on 22 January and a memorial service will take place at Glenfield Methodist Church at 13:00 on 19 February celebrating his life, followed by a committal at Gilroes Crematorium, Groby Road, Leicester.

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The Royal Navy has said that they will be sending representatives, but Norman's family would be "delighted to see veterans/associations as well".

Norman served through most of the Second World War, the majority of it in the Mediterranean.

While serving aboard HMS Warspite, the Navy suffered heavily in trying to stop the German invasion of the island with Warspite herself badly damaged by the Luftwaffe and forced to retire.

The battleship – which earned more battle honours than any other single ship in Royal Navy history – was subsequently sent to Seattle to undergo repairs.

It was an experience Norman particularly enjoyed, as he told his family decades later.

Warspite returned to action as did Norman, but he was drafted to new minesweeper HMS Spanker in 1943, remaining with her until the war's end.

The Algerine-class vessel's wartime service was focused exclusively in the Mediterranean, clearing minefields around the islands of Elba and Sardinia, supporting the 'forgotten D-Day' (the invasion of southern France in August 1944) and, in the final months of WW2, swept mines from ports and waterways on both sides of the Adriatic.

Demobbed in early 1946, Norman worked for many years as an engineer at Leicester knitwear machinery factory Stibbe.

He travelled the world with his late wife Alice and never tired of sharing his naval stories with his family – three children and seven grandchildren.