D-Day hero, 101, jumps to be world’s oldest skydiver
A D-DAY hero leapt into the record books when he became the world’s oldest skydiver yesterday.
Wearing a jumpsuit and helmet, Verdun Hayes leapt from a plane at 15,000ft, aged 101 years and 37 days.
After landing the great-grandfather said: “I’m over the moon.”
He made his tandem jump with 10 other people, including three generations of his family and the doctor who gave him the all-clear.
He took the title from Canadian Armand Gendreau, who was 101 and three days when he jumped in 2013.
Mr Hayes, who took part in the invasion of Gold Beach, Normandy, on June 6, 1944, became the oldest Briton to skydive last year, aged 100.
He was a lance corporal, signaller and wireless operator in the Royal Signals. The widower said: “How I came home from the Second World War I do not know. I was so near to the edge of everything.
“I lost any amount of friends in no time at all really. I just didn’t think I would ever return home.
He was awarded France’s highest decoration, the Legion d’Honneur.
After the war Mr Hayes, of Croyde, North Devon, worked in his family’s building firm and became secretary of the Royal British Legion in Somerton, Somerset. His jump, in Honiton, Devon, was in aid of the charity. And when he turns 102 next year, he aims to mark it with a wing walk. Great-grandson Stan, 16, grandson Rog, 50, Verdun Hayes and son Bryan, 74