A 93-year-old former serviceman from Otley is celebrating finally receiving a medal for his part in the infamously dangerous Arctic Convoys – 72 years on.

Harold Robinson was a fresh faced Royal Marine when he helped take a squadron of Hurricane fighter planes, and British pilots, to Murmansk in 1941 to support the Russian war effort.

He has amassed a string of medals for his later wartime feats, which included serving on HMS Ramillies as it provided vital fire support on D-Day and keeping supplies flowing to the besieged island of Malta.

But he had to wait until last Friday, June 14, 2013 to finally receive an Arctic Star to go with his collection.

Pleased at the award, Mr Robinson nevertheless can’t help feeling angry that many of his former comrades are no longer alive to share the honour.

He said: “They’ve finally got it to me and it’s a very nice medal.

“But it’s 72 years since I went to Murmansk and I am disappointed it has taken such a long time – it’s a shame because quite a lot of the men will never see it.

“Part of the reason for the delay was due to the Cold War, and the fact the arctic convoys of course were helping the Soviet Union.

“When Mr Gorbachev took over in Russia he gave us the Russian Convoy Medal, but even then the British Government said we weren’t to wear it – though after a while we all started wearing them.”

A former Rawdon firefighter, Mr Robinson looks back on his service during World War II with a huge sense of relief.

He said: “I was young so I didn’t think about the danger, and there weren’t many ways of getting out and seeing the world back then so it was like a great adventure.

“But I had a lot of close scrapes - when we started bombarding the German troops’ gun positions on D-Day they weren’t too happy about it, and started firing back and sending out torpedo boats.

“And when I was on HMS Argus on the Malta Convoys I watched the Ark Royal sinking after it had been hit by a torpedo, and we were zig-zagging to avoid torpedoes. I was very fortunate.”

The Arctic Convoys provided vital supplies to the Soviet Union between 1941 and 1945, with merchant ships escorted by the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy and the US Navy targeted by U-boats and German battleships and aircraft.

On the Allied side some 3,000 men died, with the loss of 85 merchant ships and 16 Royal Navy warships.