Speaking after the ceremony, he said it was the first time he had taken part in the Cenotaph service and admitted it could also be his last. Farmiloe was forced to ditch out of his Sunderland on two separate occasions during the war, but – as he points out – he also sunk an enemy U-boat in 1944. Pushed in a wheelchair by his son, Farmiloe was marching as part of the Goldfish Club – a worldwide association of people who have escaped an aircraft by parachuting into water. But, following his death last year, that honour has now passed to 98-year-old Tim Farmiloe, a warrant officer in Coastal Command who served on Sunderland Flying Boats in West Africa during the war, patrolling the coast for German U-boats. For a number of years, the oldest veteran to attend has been Ron Freer, 104. The number of World War Two veterans in attendance dwindles with each passing year. “She has been a very good Queen,” he said. He admitted he had not realised during the ceremony that the Queen had been forced to pull out and, like all the veterans present, sent his very best wishes. “If I am here next year then hopefully she will be as well,” he said.Īnother Normandy veteran to take part yesterday was Len Hobbs, 97, an able seaman who served on the Hunt-class destroyer HMS Fernie during the D-Day landings. Kersh said he hoped to see her back at the Cenotaph next year. The Queen has previously missed the Cenotaph service four times because she has been overseas on tours – in 1961, 1968, 19 – and twice before the births of her two younger children. Such determination was evident yesterday when Kersh, who lives in North London and has marched at the Cenotaph for the past two decades, wanted to get out of his wheelchair to march past the Cenotaph on foot, although he says he was prevented from doing so by his minders as it “would disrupt the column”. “We were the determined generation, determined to stand up and determined to defeat evil.” “For any one of our generation, today means an awful lot,” he said. Normandy veteran Mervyn Kersh, 96, who served in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps during the D-Day landings, said his generation feels a special bond with the Queen and their thoughts were with her during her convalescence.
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