A true hero: Shropshire war veteran, 93, recognised by Russian government for actions in World War 2

Mr Davies, who is known as David, was awarded the Ushakov medal and a certificate signed by President Vladimir Putin by third secretary to the Russian Ambassador Vadim Retyunskiy.

The 93-year-old served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

Seventy years later, the medal was on a list to be given to him this year, but was rushed to his bedside at Severn Hospice in Shrewsbury, where he is being cared for.

The great-grandfather of five, of Shrewsbury, was moved to tears as he was presented with the medal, which his family had been chasing for years.

His daughter, Bernice Williams, said: “He didn’t know he was getting the medal, he just knew it was going to be a very good day.

“I told him he had the most amazing visitor who had come to give him the Ushakov medal.

“I pulled out all the stops to make sure he had it, I was determined.

“It has made an old man very happy, you could see from his reaction.”

Mr Retyunskiy said to Mr Davies as he presented the medal: “We’re very pleased to present you with this medal for your contribution towards World War Two.

“This is the smallest thing that we can do to thank you.

“We were planning this trip for later in the year but it couldn’t wait.

“We’ve managed to present 3,500 medals within the UK.”

Mr Davies said: “I do appreciate it, you wonderful people, thank you so much.

“I’d given up, I thought it was a lost cause. Seventy years is a long time to wait.”

Mrs Williams said that about three years ago she attended a ceremony at Shirehall with her father where Ushakov medals were handed out to Shropshire residents, but Mr Davies had been missed off the list.

“So I made an application the next day,” she said.

“Having made the application I left it ages and ages until I found out that a friend worked on the Russian desk for the Foreign Office, and she contacted her contact and has been chasing it since. It was approved but it had to go to Moscow to be signed off, so I said this is getting critical now and we had the medal within 48 hours.”

Mr Davies has a remarkable collection of photographs from his time in the Navy. Many show him dealing with mines, posing happily with fellow sailors and even with a seal that one of his ships adopted as a pet.

He was born in Culmington and grew up in Church Stretton, leaving school at the age of 16 and working as a postman.

In 1941 he went to the Navy recruiting office in Shrewsbury and as he was only 17-and-a-half he misled them about his date of birth so that he could join up.

Mr Davies was assigned to HMS Lynx where he worked for a mine and bomb disposal team. He did this for 12 months where he patrolled the sea from Ramsgate to Hastings.

He then was assigned to the HMS Kent, which was a county class cruiser, one of the largest war ships in the Navy at the time.

The ship went to Iceland where it carried out patrols and surveillance. It also escorted aircraft carriers to their destinations.

HMS Kent was part of the Arctic convoys which helped to protect the merchant ships that were bringing supplies from America to Russia.

Mr Davies spent the rest of the war on HMS Kent, until the ship returned to dock in Gairloch in Scotland.

He served in the Royal Navy from 1941 to 1946.

When Mr Davies returned to the county he went back to work as a postman in Church Stretton, before moving to Shrewsbury in 1949 and worked for Midlands Red bus company on and off for 30 years.

Mr Davies and his wife Doris, 91, have two children, four grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

They celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary on December 29.

Four generations of family were at Severn Hospice to celebrate, including Mr Davies’s great grandson 10-year-old James Eatough, who had brought along a school report he made on his great-grandfather’s work during war.

James’s mother, Frances, said: “Last autumn term James had to write about someone who served in a war. It was good as he sat down and talked to his great grandad and asked questions, something he probably wouldn’t have asked about otherwise.”