We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info

The indefatigable 96-year-old veteran will fall silent on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, just as he has done on every Remembrance Day. But after the past 18 months, when Covid-19 made it impossible for soldiers like him to take part in commemorative events, this year is especially poignant.

And the man, who has spent more than 75 years raising funds for our heroes, wants everyone in Britain to pay their respects with him.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Express, Harry said: “I really hope people will stop to remember today. Not many people will remember D-Day, but I still visit schools and talk about what happened ‑ and the children are deeply moved.

“It is absolutely right that we remember the sacrifices that were made.”

He added: “It is my duty to do all I can for the blokes who never came back.”

Harry will spend some of Armistice Day in a chapel at the bottom of his garden, in St Austell, Cornwall, and quietly contemplate the horrors of war that have haunted him for more than seven decades.

On Remembrance Sunday he will lay a wreath at his local church.

He was an 18-year-old sapper with the Royal Engineers when he became one of the first wave of troops to storm German-occupied France on June 6, 1944.

Harry bravely waded ashore at 6.30am under a barrage of bullets and bombshells. And out of all the men in his unit, he was one of only four to survive.

The unimaginable carnage he saw that day never leaves him.

Harry said: “When I came out of the Army I couldn’t sleep. I used to go for a walk during the night.

“I tried to forget, but I couldn’t. I was in hospital for two years and they tried to help me to forget. I was told they couldn’t do anything as I have too vivid a memory.”

After he left the Army on February 27, 1946, with a pension of nine shillings a week (about 45p in today’s money), Harry dedicated his life to fundraising.

He spent several decades doggedly collecting for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.

But his efforts changed direction in 2018 when he heard about the creation of a monument to the fallen Normandy heroes he served alongside in the Second World War.

Since then he has single-handedly raised £50,000 towards the cost of the British Normandy Memorial in France. Every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, whatever the weather, Harry rattles a collection tin in his local market.

And he vows he will carry on collecting until his last breath.

Harry ‑ former chairman of the Cornwall branch of the Normandy Veterans’ Association and President of the Royal Engineers Association ‑ said: “I never want to call it a day.

“All the fellows I knew never put their feet up, so why should I?

“I am very lucky. If I can’t do what I have done I am not worth anything. That’s what I will continue to do.

“And when I can’t, I will rest in peace knowing I have done my best. I’ll pack up when I’m dead.”

When the memorial was opened on June 6 this year ‑ exactly 77 years after D-Day ‑ Harry could not be there because of the pandemic travel ban. 

He said: “I used to go to Arromanches [a D-Day beach in Normandy] every year until all this Covid nonsense.”

But he has now visited the edifice, looming over Gold Beach in Ver-sur-Mer. He said: “I don’t think I could give you words to say how I felt. It was very, very moving for me, and it still moves me now.”

What is happening where you live? Find out by adding your postcode or visit InYourArea

The £30million memorial, designed by British architect Liam O’Connor, stands on a hillside overlooking one of three beaches where British forces landed to start the liberation ofWestern Europe.

Its 160 stone columns bear the names of 22,442 troops who died between D-Day and the Liberation of Paris two months later.

Harry insisted: “These fellows will never die. Never. I find a lot of calmness by remembering all the chaps I knew. ” Normandy veterans loved one another like nothing else. When you are in a hole in the ground being shot and shelled at and everything is chaos, your mates are part of you.”

“Harry, who holds France’s highest honour, the Legion d’Honneur, was awarded an MBE in 2019 for his fundraising.

He also helped correct a 77-year injustice. Until the monument was unveiled, Britain was the only Allied nation without a national memorial in Normandy.

D-Day hastened the end of the Second World War and determined the fate of future generations.

Harry’s fate is to keep raising awareness and cash. There is no Government funding for the memorial’s £400,000-a-year maintenance.

So Harry will carry on collecting. He said: “If you’ve got something that is overpoweringly important to you, you’ll do it. I’m not ready to die yet, I’ve still got things to do.” 

Support the monument by making a monthly donation. Visit britishnormandymemorial.org or call 0800 470 1002.

Source: Read Full Article