John Campbell ( aged 70 and second steward of the Post Office cable ship Monarch ) is to retire after 51 years as a salor-servant of the Royal Mail - he was awarded the British Empire Medal in the New Year's Honours List for Meritorious service - Mr Campbell went to sea at the age of 13 and was engaged in the vastly important work of maintaining undersea communications during the war when he was torpedoed - he has laid cables with a destroyer to keep his vessel company and he has weathered some of the roughest gales and storms that fall to any sailor's lot - photo shows John Campbell aboard the cable ship Monarch February 2nd 1935