navy veteran Robert Cosh has criticised a Government decision not to grant a medal for service on the Arctic convoys during the Second World War.

The Government this week announced that a badge will be awarded to survivors instead of a full medal.

Mr Cosh, of Viking Way, Ledbury, a survivor of the famous Operation Pedestal convey to Malta, said: "I think the Government has lost interest in things that happened so long ago and it is relevant only to the people who were there and their families."

Mr Cosh's cousin, William Cosh, who died in 1990, won the Distinguished Service Medal while serving as yeoman of signals on the Arctic convoys.

His uncle, the late Harold Barnes, also served on the Arctic convoys as a leading stoker on board a destroyer.

Mr Cosh said his own medal for his part in Operation Pedestal came from the Maltese Government and not the British Government.

He said: "People who took part in the Arctic convoys perhaps had the worst job of the war. This decision by he Government seems a bit mean. The survivors ought to have their medals."

Nearly 3,000 British seamen lost their lives helping to keep the supply route to Russia open. The 1,500 to 2,000-mile journey is considered one of the deadliest of the war.