A FORMER Church Lench man who played a pivotal role in the rescue of a mini submarine and its seven-man crew in August has been decorated by the Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Captain Jonathan Holloway, the British naval attache in Moscow, received the Order of Friendship medal at a ceremony at 10 Downing Street recently.
The rescuers used a remote-controlled Scorpio 45 to free the submarine from nets it was snagged in off the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Seven Russian sailors were trapped in submersible AS 28 for three days after it became caught in discarded fishing nets which were entangled in a seabed surveillance system.
Scorpio 45 spent five hours using its cameras and robot arm to free the submarine trapped 190m (620ft) below the surface.
Captain Holloway, aged 45 and a former pupil at Prince Henry's School, Evesham, joined the Royal Navy when he left school at 18. He was promoted to captain three years ago, shortly before being posted to Moscow. His father Derek still lives in Church Lench.
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