THE family of an Island war hero who braved freezing conditions and Nazi U-boats during the Second War World, scattered his ashes from Ryde Pier on Armistice Day.

Douglas Turtle, who served on the treacherous Arctic Convoys which helped to supply the Soviet Union during the war, died at Christmas last year.

He was presented with the Arctic Star medal in March 2013 by the then Prime Minister, David Cameron.

Mr Turtle was mentioned in dispatches, received the Distinguished Service Medal and took part in one of the most dramatic sea battles of the Second World War.

He was just 19 years old and a crewman aboard HMS King George V when he took part in the epic sea chase which finally destroyed the Bismarck in May 1941.

At the moving ceremony at Ryde Pier were his sister-in-law Sheila Mathews and her husband, Jim.

She said: “Doug moved to Newcastle three years ago but he was an Island man and wanted to have his ashes scattered here.”

Doug’s niece, Lisa Matthews, now 50, wrote a poem in memory of him which is reprinted below.

Out across weather and water

The convoy journeys north

All sailors return to the sea

Raw hands pull on frozen ropes

The sky burns morning fire

Out across weather and water

Day after day, scanning the horizon

Striking ice from the cables

All sailors return to the sea

Photographs and letters in lockers

Boxing matches on the deck

Out across weather and water

A pennant of the heart, of home

A single flare as they cross the bar

All sailors return to the sea

Caulkhead and man of saltwater

Beloved of us you will always be

Out across weather and water

This sailor returns to the sea.