How many British WW2 Veterans are still around ?

Thank you very much, just found it! BBC - WW2 People's War

 

Ken Cooke of York
Bus named after York's last surviving D-Day veteran Ken Cooke

 

My Great Uncle Geoff Doyle is still with us at 104 and lives near Solihull.
LT in Royal Signals and previously in the ranks with REME as a fitter.
Last posting in Italy I believe till 45.

 

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) (@sundersays.bsky.social)

 

It will be a sad day indeed when the last veteran passes away. Hopefully this forum will continue to keep their memory and sacrifice alive.
Never Forgotten.

 

Pictured is 100-year-old James Marland, who is also a surviving #VEDay veteran living in our borough. (Rochdale Borough Council)
James served in the Durham Light Infantry in World War II and has lived in Rochdale all his life, now residing at Springbank care home.
James played a key role in helping to defeat Nazi Germany and bring about peace across Europe.
Many thanks for your service, James.





info c/o DLI 1920-46



Kyle

 

Looking great for 100. There must be something in the water over in Lancashire, an old Veteran I knew, Wilf Shaw made it to 98 and came from Oldham not far from James .

 

Form York press.
Normandy Veteran Ken Cooke celebrates his 100th birthday.

'Happy birthday Ken!' - York D-Day hero is 100 years old today

 

John Alexander Cruickshank VC, the last surviving recipient of the Victoria Cross during WW2, has died at the age of 105. May he rest in peace.

Aberdeen man who was last surviving WW2 Victoria Cross recipient dies aged 105 - BBC News https://share.google/3rx2kmFwVZXcsd7zP

 

VJ Day: Neighbours share memories of war and of a lost uncle

Tommy Doherty was stationed at RAF Aldergrove in 1945 before being deployed to Singapore

Victory over Japan Day - or VJ day - on 15 August marks the day in 1945 when World War Two ended.

Lisburn man Tommy Doherty may be 98 but he still remembers vividly serving in the RAF in Singapore during the war.

He was given only six hours notice to pack up to go to the other side of the world.

Meanwhile, Tommy's neighbour Brian Buick's uncle Joseph McCandless died in a prisoner of war camp in Borneo in 1945.

The two men often get together to talk about the war in Tommy's home, in which his service medals and photographs are proudly displayed.

They also shared their memories with BBC News NI.


Tommy remembers he was given only six hours notice before having to leave his family

Tommy Doherty was stationed at RAF Aldergrove when he was spoken to by one of the lieutenants on the base.

"I've bad news for you," Tommy remembered him saying.

"You have to report to Burtonwood (a former RAF base in the north of England) tomorrow at the latest.

"So I had to sail that night, with only six hours between the wife and I."


A photograph of the ship on which Tommy sailed to Sinagapore is among his wartime collection

The trip to Singapore took longer - "18 or 19 days" according to Tommy.

He worked in RAF camps in Singapore as a driver, "for a year, back and forward in different camps".

Later he was transferred to Kuala Lumpur in what is now Malaysia, and then elsewhere in the country.


Tommy, pictures with a fellow serviceman, said it was frustrating how often they were moved around

But he told BBC News NI he became frustrated at times at how much he and his fellow servicemen were moved around.

And Tommy recalled talking to former prisoners of war who felt forgotten about, after the end of the conflict in Europe.

"The Germans are beat and the war is over there and the people are all dancing about and having beers and this, that and the other thing and they've left us just prisoners," he remembers one telling him.

He also said that some of the soldiers captured by the Japanese were tortured.

While Tommy made it home, his neighbour Brian Buick's uncle did not

Brian Buick's uncle Joseph McCandless was captured on the island of Java in 1942 and held in a prisoner of war camp in Borneo, where he died in 1945.

"I was probably too young at that stage to really comprehend an awful lot about Uncle Joe," he said.

"It was only when I got older that I realised how tough and sad, really, that his life and his death ultimately had been."

Joseph McCandless joined the RAF in 1938, and was posted to Singapore in 1941.

Japan captured Singapore in 1942, landing a major blow to the British war effort.

"Joe managed to escape to the island of Java, but the Japanese also invaded Java," Brian Buick recalled.

'As brutal as you can imagine'
"That's where he was captured. He was a prisoner of war in Borneo for about three years.

"It was pretty brutal, probably as brutal as you can imagine. They were treated appallingly, not only the treatment they received but the diseases they encountered - dysentery and parasitic diseases."

His uncle, Brian added, was in a "horrible place".

He added: "Being so far from home, no contact with loved ones didn't help any, they were basically starved.

"If disease didn't get them the starvation probably did."


Brian and his family have never been able to find out exactly how Joseph died, but tragically it was very close to the end of the war, possibly only a matter of days.

They have always remembered him, particularly on VJ Day.

Events are taking place across Northern Ireland to mark the day.

William Allen, President of the Waterside branch of the Royal British Legion, in Londonderry said it was hugely important to remember all who paid the supreme sacrifice.

He said many young men had gone off to war and didn't return home and it was right and fitting that their sacrifice was never forgotten.

He was speaking at the War Memorial in the Diamond where a small group attended the commemoration.

 

Stan Ford, D Day veteran, has sadly died at the age of 100. RIP Stan.

Bath's WWII Normandy veteran Stan Ford dies age 100 - BBC News https://share.google/LyoHJBK5eW4nCXH2i

 

Thanks for alerting us Grasmere. RIP Stan

 

Sad to report the death of Private Henry Leach of the 7th Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment on Saturday 23rd May. Henry was believed to be the last survivor of the men in the battalion that advanced to the Rhine on 23rd September 1944. They fought along the Drielse Rijndijk and at the Koervaar Brickworks until relieved by the US 101st Airborne Division on 4th October.
Henry celebrated his 100th birthday last year at the nursing home in Netley where he passed peacefully on Saturday evening. He was pictured on page 183 of the excellent Battalion history written by Ian Taylor over a decade ago.