Former Scots Royal Navy chief celebrates 100th birthday as he recalls surviving Nazi raid

A former leader of the Royal Navy in Scotland has celebrated his 100th birthday, reminiscing about surviving a Nazi attack the day before he turned 18. Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Baird was born on May 17, 1924, in Canterbury, Kent, as the youngest of five children from a military family.

Wanting to "live a separate life", he chose the Navy and enrolled at Dartmouth College in Devon at a tender age of 13. He marked his 100th birthday on Friday with a family dinner attended by his two children and their spouses. The secret to his long life? Keeping a strict routine.

Sir Tom's 41-year-long Navy career began when he was just 17, serving as a midshipman - the lowest rank sailor - on HMS Trinidad. This was part of the Arctic Convoy, a show of support for the Soviet Union in 1941 after Hitler violated a non-aggression pact signed two years prior.

The journey was perilous, being close to Nazi-occupied Norway and dealing with dangerous conditions. Ice that formed around the ship's mast had to be melted away by sailors using blow torches as it caused significant instability.

HMS Trinidad was on its way for maintenance when it was attacked by Nazi warplanes after leaving Murmansk, Russia. Fifty sailors tragically died while 750 were evacuated before the ship was scuttled by British destroyers in the early hours of May 16, 1942.

Sir Tom recalled: "The Trinidad sank the day before my 18th birthday, nobody was thinking about giving me a birthday party. It was flat calm in the Arctic and the ship was evacuated about midnight. It was bright daylight, because it was sunk in May, 82 years ago."

"The destroyers torpedoed the ship so it sank in a ball of flames. While we were waiting, we were sent down to open the hatchets so the Germans couldn't pick up secret information.

"We were taken off the ship by the last destroyer. I saw the ship going down the last bit was the stern with the propellers going down. My friend took a picture on a Brownie camera."

Transported from peril to safety, the teen soldier found his way back to Greenock, Inverclyde, from Iceland, all this while still sporting a sealskin hat. Upon his return, he vividly remembers his mother admonishing him for losing his luggage before dispatching him off to re-join the Navy, stationed this time in Chatham, Kent.

In retirement after an illustrious career halted before the Falklands War in 1982, Sir Tom devoted his time to golf, being with loved ones, and for a period, chaired the Erskine Hospital for veterans, located in Renfrewshire.

Out of the 44 boys during his Dartmouth days, Sir Tom reckons 18 died during their maiden deployments in 1941, when they were just 17. The stoic sailor said: "I always thought I was one of the lucky ones to have survived being sunk once, when most of my colleagues were killed."

He settled in Scotland for good in 1965 after tying the knot with his beloved Angela from Symington, South Ayrshire, and he's called it home ever since.

His naval career hit a high note in 1979 when he was appointed Flag Officer, Scotland and Northern Ireland, overseeing the Royal Navy in the region and entertaining VIPs such as US president Richard Nixon and statesman Henry Kissinger.

Looking back on his eventful life, the widowed Sir Tom shared: "I have always been against the government and my parents, and everybody else - I liked to live a separate life.

"Most of my older relatives had been in the Army but nobody had been in the Navy, so I decided to join. I couldn't join the RAF as it hadn't been invented yet. I did war service in the UK, the Mediterranean and in the Far East."

He maintains a disciplined daily schedule, which he credits as his secret to a long life, and is dedicated to his dog Victoria.

Sir Tom revealed: "I don't have any medicines that I take regularly. I have no food between meals and I sleep from 11pm until 6am. I don't do any special exercises, like PT, runs or the gym."

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