A 101-YEAR-OLD D-Day veteran who helped liberate France in 1944 has been honoured with the country’s top medal for gallantry after a campaign for recognition by his family.

Richard Brown, of Common Road, Langley, was presented with the French Legion d’honneur at a special secret party at the Pinewood Hotel, Uxbridge Road, with family members on Saturday.

He told the Observer: “I would like to thank my family and everyone involved in giving me this special honour, especially the French government.

“It’s a huge honour and it’s been wonderful to celebrate it with my family.”

Mr Brown served in the 10th and 3rd City of London Fusiliers from 1934, until he was demobbed in 1946, and was a warrant officer second class as the Second World War started in September 1939.

During the first part of the conflict he spent time training with troops in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland before joining an artillery brigade.

Then, alongside other soldiers from around the allied countries he decamped in Southampton ready to be part of the biggest amphibious landing in military history on June 6, 1944.

He was one of the first to be landed at Juno Beach, one of the four Normandy landing areas on D-Day where he fought his way with colleagues into Caen and some of the fiercest fighting in the liberation of France, before moving on to Dieppe, Belgium, Holland and Northern Germany where, after the surrender, he became a military policeman.

But the honour may not have been made at all if it had not been for a response to the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

Son-in-law David Campbell lost his wife Valerie to cancer in October 2016, but before she died she set the ball rolling on her dad’s special day.

Mr Campbell, a retired plumber, said: “Valerie was watching the D-Day anniversary commemorations and Richard just said ‘Oh, I was there’. He rarely if ever talks about the war so it came as a surprise.

“She wrote off to the MoD which started to investigate, but the man in charge had left, and left no information about our request. Then Lieutenant Stuart Lowe took over and started the process properly after we discovered the French government hadn’t even been informed of the interest. We can’t thank him enough.

“The French government posted the medal to us 10 days ago, but we kept it secret until we got him to the hotel.

“Incredibly, he got through the war without a scratch.”