On January 12, 1950 the submarine HMS Truculent was returning to Sheerness, having completed trials after a refit at Chatham. In addition to her normal crew, she was carrying an additional 18 dockyard workers.

But only 10 of the men on board ever made it home, as at around 7pm disaster struck.

HMS Truculent was travelling through the Thames Estuary when she collided with the Swedish oil tanker, the Divina, and sank to the bottom of the river.

Fred Henley, 91, is the last remaining crew member alive today and was a Leading Seaman and a sonar operator at the time.

He said: “I was in the control room and the next minute there was an almighty crash and the submarine went right over on her beams and then righted and then plunged to the bottom.

“I was left swimming in the water with four officers and the ship that hit us threw down a lifebelt but it never stopped, it carried straight on.

“There was five of us hanging on the lifebelt and we were drifting put to sea on the ebb tide and as luck would have it a Dutch freighter heard us shouting and stopped and dropped a lifeboat and picked us up. They landed us at Gravesend.”

Mr Henley was born in Gillingham and had survived the Russian Convoys of the Second World War, for which he was later awarded the Arctic Star.

He now lives in Clacton-on-Sea and has nine grandchildren, and 10 great grandchildren. Several of whom joined him at the memorial service at St George's Centre, Chatham on Saturday.

Mr Henley was one of the lucky ones, 64 men perished that night despite many of them escaping from the stricken vessel. Those that weren't picked up, either drown or died in the freezing cold on the mud flats of the estuary.

Five more men died when the aircraft they were in crashed on take-off from RAF Kinloss, Scotland - they were on their way to rescue the submariners.

Twins, Edward Austin and Mary Huggins, 76, lost their father that night - they were just 11-years-old.

Their father, also called Edward Austin, was a civilian officer from the Dockyard and the Head of the electrical department. He was on board making sure all the electrics from the refit were working properly.

Mrs Huggins said: “Mum was woken up by a car at 2am, she thought it was Dad coming home but it was the police coming to tell her about the crash.

“I had to go to school the next day as I had exams, but Edward and our older sister Jean, Mum, our aunt and uncle and the neighbours just sat listening to the radio waiting for news.”

Mr Austin said: “We didn’t know too much of the details, whether they’d escaped or not, we just knew he was in trouble.

“All we were told was how much air they would have left to survive, so we were losing hope not realising they’d escaped.”

Unfortunately their father, along with his cousin, Herbet Tester another civilian electrician, died in the incident.

Mr Austin’s body washed ashore at Herne Bay three months later and is buried in a private grave at All Saints Church, Frindsbury.

Nearly 230 people attended the service on Saturday which was conducted by Rev Alan Boxall and Rev Gordon Warren RN.