During the war my brother was sunk 3 times & inspired Only Fools’ Uncle Albert… we didn’t learn truth until his funeral

TO millions of Only Fools And Horses fans, Del Boy and Rodney’s Uncle Albert was the Royal Navy’s unlucky Jonah. Captain Birdseye lookalike Albert Gladstone Trotter, played by Buster Merryfield, served on seven ships in World War Two — all of which sank.

Uncle Albert came into the show in the fourth series as a replacement for Del and Rodney’s beloved Grandad — but he was not dreamt up from nowhere by creator John Sullivan. The Sun can reveal he was based on a real-life naval hero who survived after three of the ships he served on during the war all sank, with the loss of many lives.

Petty Officer Cook Thomas Henry Ward, known as Harry, who won the Distinguished Service Medal for saving the life of an officer at Dunkirk, has been unmasked as the inspiration behind Uncle Albert. Albert is even seen borrowing his catchphrase, “During the war . . .”, to start his service stories.

Harry’s sister, Doreen Simson, who will be part of this year’s celebrations to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day on May 8, told The Sun: “Uncle Albert was based on my brother. “After the war, Harry joined the BBC and worked with John Sullivan, who created all of his characters from real people.

“Harry told John all about his exploits in the war and how three ships he was on went down. Two of them sank in the Arctic. “Our parents were told he was dead, presumed drowned, but later I watched him come down the street, large as life, with his kit bag over his shoulder, just like Uncle Albert.”.

Harry, the eldest of seven children brought up in West London, was born in 1920 — the same year as the fictitious Albert Trotter. As a child, Harry taught himself to swim in the Grand Union Canal — a skill that would later save his life. Just like Uncle Albert, Harry was 17 when he joined the Royal Navy. By May 1940, he was serving as a cook aboard the minesweeper HMS Gossamer.

Harry’s ship was sent as part of the Operation Dynamo flotilla to help evacuate 338,000 British troops stranded at Dunkirk. The Gossamer made six trips to the shore and rescued more than 3,000 men. During the chaos off the French coast, Harry’s ship came alongside destroyer HMS Wakeful, which had picked up 640 soldiers before being hit by two torpedoes fired from a German E-boat.

The stricken ship split in two and the bow sank immediately. Only four soldiers and 25 crew survived. Military records show that the crew of HMS Gossamer rescued a handful of survivors. Harry bravely saved the life of a Lieutenant ­Commander who was drowning, for which he received the Distinguished Service Medal from King George VI at the palace.

Doreen, 87, of Crawley, West Sussex, says: “Somehow or other, Harry got a ribbon from the hat of one of the sailors from HMS Wakeful, which he always kept, and now I’ve got it.”. Two years later, HMS Gossamer was on the Arctic convoy routes protecting ships taking supplies to the Russians against enemy U-boats.

On June 24, 1942, the minesweeper was moored at the Kola inlet in northern Russia when she was sunk by a bomb during a German air attack. Three officers were killed and 12 ratings were reported missing. Twenty crew members survived but suffered wounds.

The ship carrying those survivors was also attacked and sank. By this time, Harry had switched to another minesweeper, HMS Leda, on the Arctic convoy. But at 5.30am on September 20, 1942, Harry was preparing breakfasts when two torpedoes fired from a 435 U-boat scored direct hits.

Harry was posted missing. But after the war was over, I saw him coming across the road carrying his kit bag. We all thought he’d been lost at sea. A column of smoke shot out of her funnel and the ship began to sink. It took an hour and a half for the Leda to go under. All 86 crew, including Harry, got off by jumping into the water, though six would later die of hypothermia.

Doreen says: “When the Leda sank, apparently Harry swam over to a merchant ship and later that sank as well. His nickname was Jonah. “On the next boat he got to, they joked, ‘Don’t come on our ship, find somewhere else’.”. The War Office sent a telegram to his mother, Nellie, a BBC cleaner, and dad Harry, a fish seller at Harrods, informing them that their eldest son had been posted as missing.

By then, Doreen, who was four, and her nine-year-old brother Dennis, had been evacuated from London during the Blitz to live with families in Wales. She says: “Harry was posted missing. But after the war was over, I saw him coming across the road carrying his kit bag.

"We all thought he’d been lost at sea. He said he lived because he was a strong swimmer.”. After surviving two Arctic sinkings, Harry served on a number of other ships. He stayed on after the war ended and served 18 months aboard the fleet aircraft carrier HMS Ocean in the Mediterranean.

Harry was onboard when two British ships were sunk off Corfu in 1946, sparking the 50-year Cold War with the Soviet Union. Petty Officer Ward finally left the Royal Navy in 1948 and, just like Uncle Albert, he was demobbed with a chest full of medals for service to King and country.