War veteran Jim is the pride of Padiham as he celebrates 99th birthday

And Jim Bates will be one of the 15 people invited to attend a wreath laying service that will take place in Padiham's Memorial Park this weekend to mark Remembrance Sunday.

And it could not be more fitting as the park is celebrating its 99th birthday too and it is believed this is the first time the service has taken place there.

The wreath laying ceremony, at 10-45am, will be led by the Mayor of Padiham Coun. Vince Pridden with Canon Mark Jones and Padiham D-Day veteran Ted Davidson (94), a former tank driver who landed at Normandy's Sword Beach 18 days after D-Day.

A great grandad of nine, Padiham man Jim spent most of the Second World War on convoy escort duty with the Royal Navy.

Serving on the destroyer HMS Wilton, Jim alternated between the frozen ice flows of the Arctic Ocean and the semi-tropical waters of the Mediterranean.

Thirty years ago Jim received a surprise decoration from the Russian government in recognition of his active service. The Russian Navy commemorative medal was sent to HMS Centurion in Gosport and arrived 40 years late as the cold war set in and put a stop to them.

Since then grandfather of four Jim, who spent six years in the Navy, has been honoured every 10 years and this year, to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two, Jim was delighted to receive a rather special commemorative medal from the President of the Russian Federation.

Along with the medal Jim received a letter thanking him and his comrades on behalf of the Russian government for the role they played in helping to defeat Nazi Germany.

The letter went on to say: "Russian people do remember the dramatic and heroic story of the Arctic Convoys - a period of unique collaboration between Russia and Britain.

"Your heroism and courage will always be remembered and we strongly believe that this inseparable bond between our two nations should be preserved."

From August, 1941 to May, 1945 the convoys delivered more than 4M tons of cargo to Russia including at least 7,000 planes, 5,000 tanks, trucks, tyres, fuel, food, medicine, clothes, metals and other raw material.

Thousands of Allied seamen lost their lives as the British ships sailed the stormy waters of the Arctic ocean under constant threat from German U-boats and aircraft.

Jim, who has two sons, Peter and Paul and a daughter Daphne, remembers how his ship spent a nerve wracking few days chasing the German battleship Tirpitz after the RAF lost it in the fog. It was eventually sunk by the RAF off the coast of Norway.

Jim's son Paul said: "We are very proud of my dad and what he did for his country.

"We couldn't really have a proper celebration for his birthday due to Covid 19 but hopefully we can make his 100th birthday one to remember."