THE Greek Government is set to recognise David Walker's service during the Second World War by awarding him a medal.

The Royal Army Service Corps driver was captured in Crete during the Second World War and held for four years.

He had been on the British Expeditionary Force in France and was aboard the ship in North France which took survivors from the sunk ship HMS Lancaster.

The corps travelled to South Africa and then the Middle East and Greece before they were captured in Crete when it was invaded by the Germans.

There, the Axis forces dropped bombs and hundreds of planes landed on the beaches.

They were transferred in cattle trucks and ended up in Stalag 8B in Germany for six weeks before being moved to Poland.

Work in the mines at Katowice followed for the rest of the war.

Despite his experiences, he said some of the camps were well-organised.

When news of victory came, they set out to walk the extraordinary trek back to Stalag to be liberated.

"We expected it to take five days; five months later we were still walking," said Mr Walker. They went through Czechoslovakia and Bavaria as plans kept changing and they walked through the night to avoid running into enemy forces.

Two thousand men on the march reached a railway bridge over the Danube which the Americans bombed, killing many soldiers.

He escaped and stayed in a farm until he finally got on a US plane in Frankfurt.

He has never been abroad since after vowing never to leave England again.

He praised the British Red Cross and the Red Crescent for their work in making sure soldiers could sometimes receive food parcels and clothes.

Back home, he and his wife Joan ran Ravenslea school in Comberton Road, Kidderminster.

They used to keep many animals, including two monkeys. He closed the school in 1991 after his wife's death.

He still lives in Stourport and now attends Kidderminster College.

Fluent in German, he is brushing up on the written language and he also takes computing classes.

He and other ex-servicemen now look set to be honoured for their part in the war in Greece and Crete, 55 years after its end. He is waiting to hear where the awards ceremony will take place.