VETERAN sailor Fred Bunday, a well-known and regular visitor to Suffolk, has embarked on his final journey.More than 400 people attended the funeral service in Kent for Fred Bunday.

VETERAN sailor Fred Bunday, a well-known and regular visitor to Suffolk, has embarked on his final journey.

More than 400 people attended the funeral service in Kent for Fred Bunday.

Mr Bunday joined HMS Ganges at Shotley in 1916 before graduating to join the Royal Navy during the First World War.

In June 2000 he came to Ipswich as a special guest of the current HMS Grafton, as part of its jubilee celebrations from his home in Sidcup, Kent.

Peter Thompson from Thurleston Road, Ipswich, president of the East Anglian branch of the RHS former pupils, said: "He used to stay with us when he came to reunions and he liked his home comforts, though he didn't drink or smoke.

"I never saw him without a tie on and he had a way with the ladies."

Mr Bunday was born in November, 1900 and went to the Royal Hospital School in 1912, when it was in Greenwich.

Mr Bunday served in the Second World War, training personnel in telecommunications in the Channel Islands, and he remained in the navy until retirement.

He served on several ships including one of the seven predecessors of the current HMS Grafton from June 18 to August 25, 1918, as chief petty officer for communications.

Mr Bunday recalled: "We were chasing slave runner ships which were collecting slaves and trying to take them across the ocean. But the Grafton was so old, she was coal fired and the Arabs probably went faster than us."

He was awarded the Legion d'Honneur medal from the French government for his services during the war.

He was a regular at the annual school reunions even after the Royal Hospital School moved from Greenwich to Holbrook and drove himself from his home in Sidcup to Ipswich at the age of 100.

He was also a keen and proficient sportsman and played tennis into his 90s.

Mr Bunday leaves a son, David, two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.