Four decades since the Royal Navy ship he captained was sunk during the Falklands War, Admiral Lord West of Spithead still retains a close bond with the families of those who served and were lost on board HMS Ardent.
The former First Sea Lord describes how he wrote letters to the next of kin, “mothers and wives of the chaps who died”, adding “if there was a child, a young child, I wrote a letter for them to open when they were 18 about their father”.
