Honour for D-Day veteran

A former hardware shop owner who served as a landing craft gunner on D-Day has been awarded France’s highest military honour.

Terence Dickinson was 18 years old during the battle at Juno Beach in Normandy, where Canadian soldiers landed on June 6, 1944.

He served on board a landing craft flak (LCF) ship below deck, handing ammunition to the gunners to support the troops on the beach.

On Sunday he marked his 90th birthday surrounded by his wife Brenda and his seven children at the Conningbrook Hotel in Kennington where he was also visited by the French Honorary Consul for Kent James Rylands who presented him with the Chevalier class medal.