A WAR hero has spoken of being held in a prisoner of war camp for four years after finally receiving his service medals — at the age of 97.

Great-grandfather Sam Brearley never received the medals and thought nothing of it for decades.

But, after attending a memorial service last year, his carer Jane Parrington, urged him to contact the Ministry of Defence. She felt he should be recognised for his efforts.

Yesterday he was finally given the three medals – and Sam chose the moment to tell his story.

Originally from Bacup, the son of the former Burnley football player Bert Brearley had just finished acting in a panto in Exeter when he decided to enlist in the war effort in 1940 aged 27.

The RADA-trained actor, who lives in Whalley, was first sent to Bognor Regis for a training exercise before a three-month sea journey to Sierra Leone in West Africa.

Serving with the 1st Armoured Brigade, he was moved to Greece to help fend off a German advance.

On Sunday April 6, 1941, Germany invaded Greece and weeks later Sam was captured in the port of Kalamata.

He said: “We had been retreated for a couple of days and we formed into platoons at the water’s edge waiting for the ship to pick us up.”

But then an officer informed the platoon that the ship had left due to the increasing German presence in the town.

“He went on to say that he had already sent an envoy to the German commander to inform him that we were laying down our arms.

“I wandered away from the beach feeling rather numb. After three weeks with very little food and hardly any sleep, our exhaustion was intensified and there was a little relief that we may get a night’s sleep now.

“We threw our rifles on a pile at the harbour and joined the mass of POWs, 7,000 altogether. That was the beginning of a new kind of life.”

The soldiers arrived at a camp in Corinth on May 5, joining 3,000 Italians who had been taken prisoner in Albania.

“It wasn’t long before malaria and dysentery broke out and started to spread”, he said, “which was hardly surprising as there was only one well in the whole camp but we had no choice but to use it.

“We were getting hungrier and weaker each day spending the spare moments when not de-bugging just lying down and reading so long as you remembered to get up slowly.”

The men were then moved to another camp 200 miles north to Salonica. On arrival a pregnant Greek woman offered them food.

“Before we could take the food one of the guards ran alongside us and hit the woman with his rifle butt and knocked her down. An Aussie soldier was so mad he took a swipe at the Jerry and flattened him, only to be shot dead by another guard.”

They were moved a number of times and finally reached Spittal in Austria in 1942, where Sam joined other troops digging graves for Russian soldiers.

In order to keep their spirits up Sam and his fellow soldiers started to put on shows for the other POWs and built a theatre in an old barn.

“Many of my friends had died along the way and digging the graves for hundreds of Russians was terrible, so we had to do something.

“So I used the skills that I had learned at RADA to put some wonderful plays on with the other chaps and even the Germans came to watch.”

Sam said this camp was more relaxed and allowed them access to shops and local residents. They even got hold of a camera. In May 1945, he was liberated by American soldiers. He returned to Bacup where he met his wife Evelyn. They moved to Kent and opened a newsagents before moving back to Whalley more than 10 years ago.

On receiving his medals at last he said: “It is nice to have medals like all of my friends and others who fought in the war.”

A MoD spokesperson: “We are delighted that Mr Brearly has received his medals in recognition of his Armed Forces Service. “