MY name is Norman Wrigglesworth and I was born in York in 1926 then emigrated to British Columbia, Canada, in 1953.

I visit York nearly every year to catch up with members of my family and ten years ago had the chance to attend the 50th anniversary celebrations of the end of the Second World War in London. My visit this year coincided with the 60th anniversary concert in Trafalgar Square and, although it was very moving and brought back many memories, it was extremely tiring because there were no seats and we had to stand for about two hours - not an easy thing for a 79 year old.

In 1943 at 17, I enlisted in the Royal Navy. After 12 weeks basic training, I sailed to the Mediterranean from Liverpool on a troop ship, despite Winston Churchill declaring no members of the armed forces would be sent overseas until they were 18.

Transferring to HMS Exmoor in March 1944, we were engaged on various convoy missions and also transferred prisoners of war from Greece to Alexandria.

At the end of the war we were in a rest camp in Barrie, Italy and because prisoners of war were being moved from the front line, via Barrie, to Tripoli, there was no transport back for us to our ship so we ended up with extra leave.

We eventually made it back to our ship and safely home to England.

I am an active non-smoking campaigner and have one of the largest no-smoking signs in the world, painted on my garage roof. Look out for it when you fly into Vancouver.

Norman Wrigglesworth,

Richmond,

British Columbia, Canada.

Updated: 11:15 Wednesday, June 01, 2005