VETERAN sailor Richard Gillett, OBE, has died aged 98.

Richard was born on November 29, 1919 in Point, Old Portsmouth.

On leaving Portsmouth Grammar School he began work as a clerk at the Armament Depot earning £1.8s per week.

During World War Two he served as a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and he was awarded two medals to mark his service in Russia, having spent 1944 in the Soviet Union.

For the early war years he was posted in Londonderry, keeping convoys supplied for the Atlantic crossing, before being sent east across Europe.

He received the Arctic Star in 2013, for his involvement in the Arctic Convoys to Archangel and Murmansk, with his own ship being torpedoed on the voyage to the latter, but fortunately it remained afloat.

Richard was awarded the medal from the British Government almost 70 years on from serving in Russia and it was presented by the Lord Lieutenant of Dorset in a ceremony at Sunrise Westbourne. At the time, Richard was one of just 200 recipients still alive to tell the tale of the convoys.

In 2015, he also received a commemorative medal marking the 70th anniversary of the ending of the 'Great Patriotic War', which was accompanied by a letter from President Vladmir Putin.

Following the war he went to work for the Admiralty in Bath and subsequently ran depots in Mombassa, Scotland and Plymouth.

In 1957 he began work for HM Treasury as part of an elite group charged with helping various departments and organisations, including the Metropolitan Police, Buckingham Palace and the British Embassy in Washington.

Following the success of his Washington post, he was invited in 1964 to join the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and subsequently worked in the High Commission in Bombay as Head of Chancery, then as the British Government representative in Antigua and Barbuda where one of his roles was to support St Kitts and Nevis in achieving full independence. In 1973, he was appointed an OBE.

His final posting was as Head of Chancery in the British Embassy in Ankara, Turkey.

Richard retired with his second wife Joan to Javea in the south of Spain where he was an enthusiastic member of a mountain walking group and continued to travel and explore many countries. In 2003 he returned to England and lived in Redhill, Surrey, for a number of years.

Richard moved to Sunrise Westbourne in 2009 in order to receive support for his wife, who had Alzheimers.

After moving to Dorset he joined the Bournemouth branch of the Royal Overseas League and the local walking group and continued to be very active socially until his death. He regularly attended St Clement's Church, Parkstone.

Sport was an important factor in all three of his careers and he was an accomplished hockey and cricket player for many years.

Richard died peacefully in his sleep on December 31, 2017 aged 98. He is survived by a daughter, son, six grandsons and two great-grandchildren.