NAVAL veterans and family yesterday bade farewell to Frank King, formerly president of the Gwent Prisoner of War Association and holder of the Distinguished Service Medal, who served the Royal Navy on the surface, in submarines and in the air.

Mr King, of Hampshire Cres-cent, Newport, joined the Royal Navy before the Second World War and was serving in HM Submarine Venturer at the time he won his Distinguished Service Medal.

Later, in 1941, his submarine, which was carrying fuel for the beleaguered island of Malta, was rammed by an Italian destroyer and Mr King, along with other members of the crew, was taken prisoner.

Mr King, who was 89 at the time of his death, was later to say: "We were forced to abandon ship, which is not so easy when your conning tower is being machine-gunned. "We were taken on an Italian boat and landed at Benghazi, where we were taken to the outskirts of the town and locked in some very old barracks without water or sanitation. It was boiling hot during the day and too cold at night to sleep."

The voyage to internment in Italy was fraught, since the Italian ship risked attack by our own navy. Fortunately, the RN had realised that northbound vessels probably carried Allied prisoners and did not molest them.

In March 1943, Mr King, a chief engine room artificer, together with several other naval prisoners, was moved to Turkey where an exchange of prisoners had been arranged by the International Red Cross.

"Back in Egypt, we were taken back to a Fleet Air Arm base outside Alexandria where they asked for some volunteers to fly as gunners in Fairey Swordfish, the elderly torpedo bomber biplanes. I enjoyed this very much but was very surprised at how cold it was, even over Egypt," he recalled.

In 1995, at a Buckingham Palace garden party, Prince Philip spotted Mr King's PoW Association tie and stopped to chat.

The men realised that they were naval near-contemporaries. A regular naval man, Mr King retired from the Royal Navy in 1950 and worked as an engineer, latterly at Llanwern works.

He was popular among ex-service veterans and was always to be seen at Remembrance Day parades in Newport.

Mr King is survived by his wife, Clarice, sons David and Brian and daughter Linda. The funeral service was at St Andrew's, Lliswerry, yesterday.

Royal Naval Association spokesman Mr John Davies said: "We are mourning a brave man with a distinguished naval record, of which his family and Gwent can be proud."