A D-DAY veteran who went on to own a well-known shop in Okehampton and became one of Okehampton Rotary Club’s longest serving members has died aged 94.

Cecil Cole was born on April 7, 1922, on his parents’ smallholding near Bratton Clovelly. The youngest of six children, he left school at 14 to help support his family. His first job was at Lydford Forest but The Second World War ended Cecil’s plan to become a forester when all forestry training was suspended and he was called up for Army service.

After months of training, he found himself on a landing craft heading toward the Normandy beaches for the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944. With his heavy truck he accompanied the leading echelons of the Royal Engineers as they built bridges and fought their way through northern Europe toward Germany.

During one of the group’s pushes through Holland, his life took an unexpected turn when he met Lidy, an inquisitive Dutch woman who went to have a look at the first of the British soldiers to arrive in her part of Holland.

They quickly fell in love, married and in 1947, came to England to start their new life together.

Upon returning home, Cecil managed to get a job as a shop assistant in Okehampton in what was then Wright’s the Ironmongers. He initially swept floors and cleaned windows as he learned his trade but quickly was elevated to store manager.

When James Wright sold the shop to the Reeves Group, Cecil stayed on. When the Reeves Group eventually pulled out of retail in the early 1970s Cecil saw his chance. He successfully bid to buy the Okehampton business and premises. With Lidy at his side, Cecil Cole Okehampton Ltd was born.

From suites of furniture to poultry feeders, the shop sold everything imaginable and with Lidy’s help, the business grew and grew. An annual highlight was the visit of Father Christmas, with queues stretching from the shop on Fore Street down through the Arcade.

During his time running the shop he became involved with Okehampton Rotary Club and at the time of his death he was the club’s longest serving member.

For 67 years, Cecil lived in the same house on Station Road where he raised a family of four. When work allowed, the family travelled across Europe for an extended visit to Lidy‘s family in Holland. In his free time at home, he worked his productive vegetable garden or could be seen on the banks of the River Torridge rod in hand trying to catch brown trout or salmon.

A few months before his death, Cecil was one of a group of veterans awarded the rank of chevalier in the Legion D’Honneur, France’s highest decoration for bravery, in recognition of his part in the D-Day landings.

Cecil died on September 3 and his funeral took place on September 30 at St Boniface’s Catholic Church in Okehampton.

Cecil will be missed by his friends, four children, their spouses, his eight grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.