(return to 2026 News & Events page)

2026 Normandy Veteran Richard Aldred’s Funeral

Normandy Veteran Richard Aldred’s Funeral, Bodmin 30 March
Richards funeral will be held at:
Glynn Valley Crematorium,
Bodmin, PL30 4AP
at 1530hrs.
Richard’s partner Joy welcomes all veterans and Standard Bearers who wish to pay their respects and send a Normandy Veteran on his way.
Richard Aldred, from Callington, served in the 7th Armoured Division and helped liberate Bourneville with his tank crew in 1944. He was later made a freeman of the French town in recognition of his service during World War Two.
Aldred told BBC News in 2024: "I'm not a hero. I just did my duty because you don't let your mates down."
Aldred was sent to France in 1944 as a tank driver, just shy of his 20th birthday, and recalled "pretty rough old times but I was very lucky to be in a tank crew".
In 2024, he travelled from Callington in Cornwall to Normandy for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, where he met King Charles III.
The team at the British Normandy Memorial played host to him on several occasions at Ver-sur-Mer and said they were "very sad" at his passing.
They added that Aldred had remembered taking cover by lying under a roadside crucifix alongside his surviving crew mates and recalled they all said a prayer that day.
It would be marvellous if we can give Richard a good send off.

SO NICHOLLS
Lieutenant Colonel (Retired)
President
Camborne Branch-Royal British Legion

(return to 2026 News & Events page)