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Daily Mail
05-05-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
D-Day hero, 99, who ferried Allied troops onto beaches of Normandy as a teenager laughs with Keir Starmer during VE Day procession - ahead of tea with the King at Buckingham Palace
A 99-year-old D-Day veteran had a prime position for today's VE Day commemorations - right next to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Albert Keir was pictured having a chuckle with the PM ahead of the military procession this afternoon. The pair had the best seats in the house on the specially built dais on the Queen Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace to watch the procession of 1,300 members of the armed forces and Nato allies. Mr Keir, who was part of a crew ferrying US troops onto Utah Beach in Normandy during the D-Day invasion in June 1944, is among more than 30 Second World War veterans attending celebrations in London to mark VE Day. Another of the veterans, Bernard Morgan, 101, was seated next to the Princess of Wales. The pair got on similarly well. The Royal British Legion has worked with their families and the Government to ensure as many as possible can be there to see the procession through London. The veterans are set to have tea with King Charles and Queen Camilla later at Buckingham Palace. Mr Keir served in the Royal Navy for three years from 1942. Speaking of his experience of D-Day, he said:'At night when it was dark, the sky was lit up with all different sorts of colours, tracer bullets and different things. And the noise was colossal... 'And the firing from the sea over our heads blasting the beaches was very bad. 'Took some standing that did. It's very difficult to try and get it out of your mind.' Before the war, Mr Keir had been working as a painter and decorator after leaving school aged 14. He was discharged shortly before the end of the war so he could help repair and build houses. Mr Keir was awarded France's highest award, the Legion d'honneur, in 2015 and last year was honoured with the Freedom of Derbyshire by his local council. A total of 31 veterans were due to attend official events today, including 26 watching the parade, which headed from Parliament Square to Whitehall, then to Trafalgar Square, Admiralty Arch, The Mall, and finally to Buckingham Palace. Mr Morgan worked as a codebreaker during the war. He landed on Gold Beach at 6.30pm on D-Day, becoming the youngest RAF sergeant to land in Normandy during the war. He remembers receiving a secret telegraph message two days before VE Day which read: 'German war now over, surrender effective sometime tomorrow.' When the end of the war was officially confirmed on May 8, Mr Morgan and his comrades lit a huge bonfire and celebrated until late into the night. He said: 'It's so important that we make the most of these opportunities to remember what happened, not just to celebrate the achievement, but also to ensure that such horrors never happen again.' RAF veteran Alan Kennett, who will turn 101 on May 29, formally started the parade as he received the Commonwealth War Graves' Torch For Peace from air cadet warrant officer Emmy Jones. Mr Kennett was in a cinema in Celle, north-central Germany, when the doors burst open as a soldier drove a jeep into the venue and shouted: 'The war is over.' He said the cinema erupted with joy, and celebrations soon spread through the streets. Alfred Littlefield, aged 101, joined the Royal Engineers and served during D-Day, when he swam in with supplies from the launches under shell fire. His unit stayed on to build the temporary Mulberry Harbours, which facilitated the rapid offloading of cargo onto beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Ann Johnson, aged 101, served in the Land Army during the war as a tractor driver. Arthur Oborne, aged 99, joined the army in 1942 aged 18 and later became part of the 30th Corp - also known as the 'Desert Rats' - which took part in the D-Day landings and subsequent advance across France. Barbara Hurman, who is soon to turn 100, volunteered to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service - the first all-women's branch of the British Army, formed in 1938 - when she was just 17 years old. A veteran of the Women's Royal Naval Service, Betty Hollingberry was one of six sent to work on HMS Pembroke V in Eastcote, west London, where she helped operate the Bombe machines designed to break German Enigma codes. Charles Auborn, 99, joined the Army aged 18 in 1944 and served as a gunner. When victory in Europe was announced, he was sent to Belgium with the view to being shipped out to assist the Americans in Japan - but the atom bomb put an end to that. His officer returned from the UK with new orders: 'How are you boys for shorts?' - as they were being sent to Egypt. He was sent on to Palestine, Tel Aviv, and finally Tripoli before being demobbed in 1947. Ann Johnson, aged 101, served in the Land Army during the war as a tractor driver Arthur Oborne, aged 99, joined the army in 1942 aged 18 and later became part of the 30th Corp - also known as the 'Desert Rats' - which took part in the D-Day landings and subsequent advance across France Royal Navy veteran Cyril Jones Alston, 98, began his service on his 18th birthday in February 1945 to serve 'until the end of the period of the present emergency.' Douglas Hyde, soon to turn 99, joined the Merchant Navy in 1944 aged 18. He was part of a secret operation to liberate Europe and spent months going back and forth to the beaches deploying munitions and amphibious vehicles. On VE Day, Mr Hyde bumped into his brother in Antwerp, Belgium, and they celebrated the end of the war together. Royal Marines veteran Francis James Grant, 99, served on D-Day and was tasked with patrolling beaches and escorting allies. Royal Navy veteran Frederick Pickering, 100, was on board a ship when he heard an announcement come over the Tannoy that there was victory in Europe. That day, they all celebrated on board with two tots of rum, and later went on to do a Victory March in Livorno, western Italy. Gilbert Clarke, 98, lied about his age to join the RAF in 1943 and trained in Kingston Palisades RAF camp in Jamaica, before being sent on a troop-carrying ship to Britain via the United States. Henry Ducker, 104, was called up to join the Air Force aged 19. He undertook several radio control courses during his time in the Air Force and was responsible for running control centres wherever he was posted to. Jim Miller, 100, was serving in the Army's armoured cops when he arrived in Normandy three days after D-Day on June 9 1944. He ended up meeting his wife in Berlin while serving there during the liberation. Army veteran Joe Mines, 100, was sent to clear mines aged only 18 and alongside four other men. John Mortimer, 101, was just 20 when he landed on Sword Beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944. 'There were thousands and thousands of ships on either side of us, loads of vehicles, tanks and artillery,' he recalled. 'It was dangerous, there were snipers all around. It was noisy, smoky, and smelly, and I saw lots of casualties.' John Davies, 102, was 17 when he joined the Merchant Navy in 1940. He was at sea on VE Day, and could not get any beer when he came back two days later as everywhere was sold out due to the celebrations. John Whitlock, 100, joined the RAF aged 18 and trained for two years before being posted to join RAF New Zealand Squadron 490, operating out of West Africa on marine patrols in Sunderland flying boats. During the Soviet blockade of Berlin, he flew supplies into West Berlin until the blockade ceased in 1949. Joy Trew, 98, from Bristol, remembers being fascinated with aviation ever since saw German aeroplanes drop bombs over her school playground, and joined the Women's Junior Air Corps aged 17. Joyce Wilding, 100, from Surrey, enlisted in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Fany) aged 18. She was on a day off travelling to London with her colleagues when victory in Europe was announced. She said: 'We went to Piccadilly where there was a stream of people singing and dancing; we joined a crocodile and did the Palais Glide down Piccadilly, there were soldiers up lampposts, it was extraordinary.' They made their way to Buckingham Palace and witnessed the King, Queen, and Winston Churchill waving to the crowd from the balcony. 'Being outside the palace, you could hardly move - there were so many people cheering and singing,' she added. Olga Hopkins, 99, from St Albans in Hertfordshire, served in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force as a wireless mechanic. Remembering VE Day, she said: 'I was lying in bed in my Nissen Hut at midnight, listening to the American Forces Network, when a Tannoy announced, 'The war is over.' 'We jumped out of bed, threw on our battledress, and joined a party at the sergeant's mess.' She recalls singing Don't Fence Me In with friends, adding: 'We had a whale of a time.' Norman Brown, 101, joined the RAF aged 18 and was later stationed in Cape Town, South Africa, travelling in a large convoy of ships that took six weeks to get to Durban. After the war, he was stationed in Germany to help with maintaining peace, cleaning up and rebuilding, just outside of Hamburg. Norman Trickett, 98, joined the Home Guard in Portsmouth in 1942 at the age of 15. He later fought through Northern France, Belgium and Holland. He was captured by Germans at the beginning of May 1945 when leading an advance scouting patrol and ended the war as a prisoner in Bremerhaven, northern Germany. Robert Piper, 99, joined the home guard at the age of 14 at the outbreak of the war. He then lied about his age to sign up and joined the Royal Sussex regiment, before being transferred to the Royal Signal regiment attached to 15th Scottish infantry. Ruth Barnwell, 100, joined the Women's Royal Naval Service aged 17 when her brother's friend was killed on HMS Hood, which was sunk during the Battle of the Denmark Strait on May 24 1941 by the German battleship Bismarck. She said she was 'very happy' when she heard the war had ended, but added that it was a 'normal working day' and carried on with her duties at the Combined Operations base HMS Quebec in Scotland. Royal Navy veteran Ruth June Bourne, 98, was a Bombe machine operator and checker at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, during the war. On VE Day, she went to London with a colleague to celebrate. 'We waited outside the Palace chanting 'We want the King',' she said. 'The royal family came out, and we went mad cheering. 'People were climbing lampposts. 'I climbed onto a window ledge shouting, 'Three cheers for the British Navy'.' RAF veteran Thomas Greenfield, 101, from Sussex, volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm. Army veteran Tom Stonehouse, 99, landed at approximately 8am on Gold Beach on D-Day. He remembers 'losing lots of Essex Regiment friends in the Battle of Caen' from June to August 1944. His wife's birthday is on VE Day, so the couple always celebrate the birthday and their war memories together. Zena da Costa, 100, from Southport in Merseyside, was evacuated as a child and signed up to the Women's Auxiliary Air Force at the age of 18. She had trained as a hairdresser and always regretted telling anyone this, as she subsequently got the job of doing all the officers' hair. As she wanted to get involved with driving, she constantly nipped out to drive trucks that were left around her unit until she was reprimanded by having to peel potatoes.
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Freedom of Derbyshire awarded to D-Day veteran
A veteran who helped to liberate Europe from the Nazi occupation has been handed the Freedom of Derbyshire. Albert Keir was part of the D-Day naval crew which carried American troops to Utah Beach in France on 6 June 1944. Derbyshire county councillors on Wednesday bestowed the civic honour on the 99-year-old, from Bakewell, in recognition of his service and life achievements. Speaking at a special meeting for him at County Hall in Matlock, council leader Barry Lewis paid tribute to "a real Derbyshire hero". Mr Keir was awarded the National Order of the Legion of Honour (Legion d'honneur) by the French government in 2015, the highest French order of merit for military and civilian personnel. He returned to Normandy in June last year with other veterans to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day. While there he met King Charles III and Queen Camilla, among other dignitaries. Lewis said: "He was a remarkable gentleman, and at 99 years of age has seen some amazing things. "He must be one of very few left of the generation that saw action in World War Two so all the more important that we can honour him in this way. "We mustn't forget that succeeding generations haven't had to go to war in quite the same way because of the sacrifices made by Albert's generation. "We don't want a repeat of that kind of conflict again." The veteran, who will turn 100 in the summer, had been working as a painter and decorator after leaving school at the age of 14 and was a member of the Local Defence Volunteers. In 1943 he joined the Navy, where as a seaman he carried out general ship and gunnery duties on the Flower class corvette HMS Potentilla. He was discharged slightly before the war ended in 1945 as part of a "category B" discharge, offered to those in the construction trade who could repair and build houses ready for the massive amount of people coming home at once. During the 1950s, he began working as a painter and decorator for Derbyshire County Council, where he spent the majority of his working life until he retired in 1990, aged 65. Outside of work, Mr Keir sold poppies for the Royal British Legion, becoming one of the longest-serving poppy sellers in the country. Mr Keir married Dorothy in 1954 and they were together for 66 years, having one son, Andrew. Dorothy died aged 87 in 2019. He has another son, Michael, from a previous marriage and two grandchildren from him. Andrew Keir said: "It's special to be recognised by the council, representing everyone from the county, so it's a people's award rather than a military one. "It's a great honour, we're just very proud of him." Follow BBC Derby on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@ or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210. What were the D-Day landings? D-Day 80: We Were There Derbyshire County Council
