A military funeral will take place today for a proud veteran who died just two days before Remembrance Day.

Bermuda War Veterans' Association secretary Ron Barton, a survivor from the downed naval vessel in 1941, was also a former chairman of the Royal Naval Association. He died of what is thought to have been an embolism, aged 80, on Sunday.

"He was a very proud man," said WVA president Frank Farmer.

"It is very sad to lose a man like Ron so close to Remembrance Day. He did a lot for the association over the years."

Mr. Barton served as secretary of the association for six years where he was one of the organisers of the Poppy Appeal, which raises money to help Bermuda's war survivors.

His son, Lt. Commander Paul Barton, paid tribute to his father, who was decorated with the Atlantic, Pacific and Defence medals during his 22 years Navy service.

"He was a man who really loved life," said Lt. Cdr. Barton.

"He was always looking for the positives in everything ? he had a great smile.

"Remembrance Day meant an awful lot to him. The timing is particularly poignant and very sad."

Mr. Barton, originally from Wembley, Middlesex, moved to Bermuda in 1960 and worked in private industry with his last job before retirement at HMS Malabar.

He is survived by wife Renee, daughter Patricia, son Paul, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

His funeral will take place at 3 p.m. today at St. Paul's Church followed by interment in the War Veteran's Plot at Pembroke Parish Cemetery.

Mr. Barton survived the sinking of the which was attacked by a strong force of Japanese high-level bombers and torpedo planes on December 10, 1941, just a few days after the attacks on Pearl Harbour.

In one of the major events of the Second World War, more than 800 of the 2,400 crew aboard that battleship, and the which was also attacked, were killed in the raid around 50 miles off the coast of Malaya.

With no friendly planes to protect her, the capsized and sank to become one of the first capital ships to be sunk by air attack while operating on the high seas.

"The British Empire died that day," Mr. Barton told the Mid-Ocean News last year in an interview about that event, which took place when he was just 21.

"One of the torpedoes hit the A-frame that supported the propellor and that basically meant we could not manoeuvre and were completely helpless. You could hear the torpedoes coming through the water, put, put, put, but there was nothing we could do.

"We were told that if we stopped firing at them (the Japanese) they would stop attacking us, because the ships were already sunk. And they didn't attack us and I'm grateful for that.

"It was an amazing sight watching the ship go over, this huge mountain of steel and guns, amid all that smoke.

"We lost 800 men, but at least there were 1,600 saved.

"The Express took us back to Singapore and we drank all their rum."

Mr. Barton spent much of the remainder of the war patrolling the Indian Ocean in the cruiser the Warspite but did not see any further action.