D-Day and Nuremberg veteran dies aged 94

A BRITISH Jewish D-Day veteran who went on to observe the Nuremberg trials and later received the Légion d’Honneur has died at the age of 94, with his family vowing to “carry on his legacy.”

Leslie Sutton, who for many years was on the executive of the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (Ajex) and served as the organisation’s national standard bearer at marches for over two decades, passed away of natural causes on Sunday.

At the age of 21, Mr Sutton, who served as a corporal in the RAF, took part in the D-Day landings at Omaha beach, Normandy, along with the American First army.

He would later help liberate a women’s camp in Germany, and subsequently worked as a security escort for VIPs. It was in this capacity that he accompanied Charles de Gaulle to the Nuremberg trials, later describing how “looking back, I saw history being made”.

Of his wartime experiences, he said: “I went in a boy and came out a man.”

In 2016, Mr Sutton, who was a resident of Ilford and a member of Redbridge United Synagogue, received the Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest award, from the French ambassador.

His grandson, Dan Halawi, told the JC: “He taught all of us in the family a lot of lessons on how to be a better person.”