A WAR hero from Crayford, whose family feared he was dead after being captured and held hostage for 370 days, celebrated his 100th birthday on Sunday. (May 5)

Great grandfather-of-two Fred Gillham, of Manor Road, has seen a lot in his lifetime and has a story to tell to rival the Great Escape.

Born In 1913, he was orphaned at the age of five when his parents died in the flu pandemic.

Along with his three siblings, Fred went to live with his grandmother in Dartford Road and attended West Hills School in Dartford before leaving at the age of 14 to work at the cement works in the town.

In 1940 Fred left behind his heavily pregnant wife and young son to join the navy as a leading gunner and embark on a five-year adventure.

He was aboard a ship delivering supplies to the besieged Malta when it was struck by an aerial torpedo.

The father of two told News Shopper: "We tried to run through to Malta through the Gibraltar end of the Mediterranean. We was disguised as a neutral ship and joined a convoy going down.

"They let us get down for five days and then they (the Italians) decided to sink us.

"We was in an old captured Italian ship. We had a French flag painted on the side one night, and we crossed over to the Medy and had a Spanish flag painted the next night.

"We could hear it coming", said Fred. "People just threw themselves over the side when the torpedo hit us."

"It hit us in the number two hold where there was a load of grain and lorries and that for Malta".

Describing the torpedo strike, the grandfather-of-two said: "We could hear it coming, they came at a very low angle."

"The ship tried to manoeuvre us out the way. It hit us where there was a load of grain and lorries and that for Malta.

"But the rest of the stock was explosives and petrol and all things like that, so it hit us in the right place."

Fred jumped in one of two lifeboats filled with 50 crew members frightened for their lives.

Others threw themselves overboard as the torpedo struck and were rescued by the lifeboats.

He said "We could see a light, up this mountain and that’s what we rowed to, it took us all night to row to this town called Tabarka in Tunisia.

"We were interned as prisoners for 370 days We had couscous, one meal a day of couscous with a nob of bread, which was no good to anybody.

"A few of them had to be repatriated because they got ill and also because they was drinking raw metholayted spirits and were ill and had to be in hospital really so had to be repatriated.

"That was the Scotch crew and they were right monkies!"

Escape came through the help of the French commander of the camp.

Fred’s son David, 72, of Mount Pleasant Walk, Dartford, said: "The Commandant said that he could see the writing on the wall and that he would change sides and try and help them get back to allied lines."

The prisoners boarded a mining train to Algiers before getting on a ship to Scotland, and Fred then made his way back to Crayford, a journey of 3494km.

He was just seven stone when he arrived home. After the war ended, Fred returned to the Crayford area, where he has lived since.

When asked to reveal the secret behind living to 100, he said: "I should think it would be called luck!", but went on to say "every night for tea I had salad and a raw Spanish onion. I had that for tea religiously for 45-50 years."

His son David reckons that this "cleansed his blood!"