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Lawrence Bennett

7/ 7/2008

ONE of the last surviving Dunkirk and Normandy veterans in the Valley has died at the age of 87.

Lawrence Bennett, of Park Road, Waterfoot, died peacefully at home on Wednesday 25 June after a short illness.

Mr Bennett took part in the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940 and the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944. He served with the Lancashire Fusiliers in the early part of the Second World War and later in the tank corps.

After the war, he worked in Manchester intil his retirement as a packaging designer.

He was a founder member of the Rossendale branch of the Dunkirk Veterans Association. Mr Bennett was also the youngest soldier to receive the French Medal from the people of Dunkirk.

Margaret, 84, his wife of 66 years, paid tribute to her husband. She said: ‘When the war ended he was in Berlin and saw Belsen concentration camp. Every anniversary he would go out and march, he wanted to remember his friends and all the people who were not so lucky.

‘He met Prince Charles at the D-Day landings anniversary a few years ago and chatted with him. He asked Lawrence where he was from and he said Rossendale which the Prince said he knew very well.

‘There were 50 members when they first formed the Dunkirk Veterans Association, there is only one now.’

Mrs Bennet added: ‘He was such a jolly man and he was very proud of everything which he had achieved. They were 66 lovely years of marriage and I have many happy memories.’

Mr Bennett was a keen gardener and enjoyed watching football and supported Manchester United.

He leaves his wife, daughter Patricia, son-in-law Gordon, daughter-in-law Heather, five grandsons, two granddaughters, three great-grandchildren, sister Rose, sister-in-law Ellen, brother-in-law Michael, nephews and nieces.

His funeral was on Thursday 3 July when the Rev Rod Bevan led a service at the chapel of rest followed by cremation in Burnley. Family flowers only with donations welcome for Rossendale Hospice c/o funeral director: Dawn Johnson for Fred Hamer Funeral Service, Rawtenstall.