Tributes paid to ‘gentleman’ D-Day veteran after death aged 97

Harold Pearsall of Tamworth, who was awarded France’s highest military honour in 2015, died on Sunday at the age of 97.

The Royal Artillery veteran landed alongside Canadian forces during the Normandy campaign.

And he has been praised as a "fantastic, down to earth guy’ who will be ‘sorely missed".

Norman Bartlam is a local historian who has worked with Mr Pearsall on a number of projects in the past.

And he praised him for his enthusiasm in sharing his stories with younger generations, calling him a "very, very nice man".

“I’d done a couple of interview with Harold in the past, we’ve used them in local history lessons and schools, and he’s just such a fantastic, down to earth guy, considering what he’d gone through,” he said.

“He was 97 when he passed away, I last saw him a few months ago at the national arboretum for the 75th anniversary of D-Day, which is where the I did a video with him. And he was really keen, and enthusiastic, to take part in the video, so that other people, younger people, could know what his generation had to put up with and what his generation went through and fought for.

"And he was so lucid and easy going, and difficult to imagine in a combat situation really. Just such a nice bloke – a very, very nice man.

“He went ashore just after the main D-Day landings, and was involved with a lot of the work around Caen. And he was also involved with Market Garden, which was leading up to the Bridge over the River Rhine going towards Arnhem. Even though he was 97, he was still very good with the stories he would tell.

“Day to day he perhaps wouldn’t talk about it much. But once he put his uniform back on and his medals on it took him back into it I think, and then he was really keen to talk about it.”

Mr Pearsall, a father of two, had previously been in hospital with a broken hip, and was re-admitted to the Good Hope Hospital last week.

He was awarded the Légion d’Honneur in 2015 by the French government, something which Peter Lloyd, Chair of the 1944 Alliance Normandy-Market Garden veterans’ association, said he was "immensely proud of".

And he added that Mr Pearson will be "sorely missed".

“We went on trips to Normany for D-Day, and Holland for Operation Market Garden. And trips in this country too, to commemorate both events,” he said.

“Harold was a very, very nice person. Thought of everybody else in front of his own needs. He was very smart, clean and tidy, he came on parades and services with us.

“And very friendly. A gentleman. An absolute gentleman.”