Disaster survivor’s big birthday
A Second World War veteran who survived one of Britain’s worst maritime disasters has celebrated his 100th birthday.
Ernest Beesley got a card from the Queen and a note from singer Dame Shirley Bassey as he marked the milestone with a trip in a vintage car, dancing the Tennessee Waltz and being serenaded.
He served in the Royal Engineers during the Second World War and was aboard the HMT Lancastria on June 17, 1940, when it was hit and sunk by a German air raid near the French port of SaintNazaire and about 4000 men, women and children died.
Mr Beesley, who was born in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, on September 30, 1917, credits the love of his late wife Doris to whom he was married for 72 years, along with his passion for gardening, for his long and happy life.
Being greenfingered has helped keep his mind and body sharp, he said.
Speaking from his care home in Uxbridge, west London, where he was surrounded by friends and family on his big day, Mr Beesley said: “It was a one of the best days of my life.”
Mr Beesley, who had been working on railway lines in Brittany, was on the Lancastria as it transported troops from France, shortly after the Dunkirk evacuation. Fewer than 2500 people survived the disaster, which marked the largest loss of life from a single engagement for British forces in the war.