Call for people to attend funeral of veteran, 102
An appeal has been made for people to attend the funeral of an Army veteran.
William Darnell, who served with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, died recently at the age of 102.
Hull4Heroes, a charity founded by Paul Matson, a veteran himself, issued the appeal on social media.
The post read: "William sadly has no surviving family, but his kind-hearted neighbours want to ensure he receives the farewell he truly deserves – let's make sure William is not alone on his final journey."
The request for the charity to help came from Joanne Barlow, Mr Darnell's neighbour in the Holderness Road area of the city.
She said: "We started to get to know William during the pandemic when we offered him help with shopping and things.
"We took him out for his Covid injection and when he saw young kids on the street he would say that at that age he had to join the Army.
"That's how we started to learn a bit about his past, although we still didn't know a lot about him."
With no known surviving relatives, Ms Barlow said it was really important that he was given a proper send off.
"I'm pleased to see that lots of people have responded to the call out from Hull4Heroes," she added.
One of those to respond to the post was motorcyclist Paul Perry, 68, who lives in Wakefield.
He said he would be attending the funeral along with members of the Veterans and Riders Support Group.
"There'll be at least two of us there on Harley-Davidsons," he added. "We have a motto that no vet should leave this earth alone," he added.
Mr Matson said: "All our veterans feel a sad loss when any veteran dies, just like they do in the police force, the fire service and such-like. It's good to pay our respects."
Mr Darnell's funeral will be held on Monday at 11:00 BST in the small chapel at Chanterlands Avenue Crematorium in Hull.
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