D-Day veteran Donald Howkins dies aged 105

A World War Two veteran who took part in the D-Day landings has died aged 105.

Donald Howkins, from Buckingham, served as a gunner in the Middlesex Regiment and helped waterproof vehicles and ammunition for the Normandy invasion before landing at Gold Beach.

He served alongside his four brothers during the war, all of whom survived.

Speaking to the BBC in 2024, he said: "I often wonder why I've lived this long and so many of my mates and friends got killed."

Dick Goodwin, vice president of Taxi Charity for Military Veterans, said: "Don Howkins was a truly wonderful gentleman, and we had the enormous pleasure and privilege of getting to know him.

"He had built a very successful family business after the war, but he remained deeply connected to the memories of his wartime service and the friends he had made along the way."

The apprentice butcher joined the Territorial Army when he was 17, before the war broke out, because he wanted "something to do".

After D-Day, his unit moved from Normandy to continue fighting German soldiers in Belgium and the Netherlands.

He suffered a shrapnel wound to his leg and was recovering in hospital when he learned his son had been born. Fellow soldiers on the ward applauded the news.

When the war ended, he was stationed at a prisoner of war camp, where he and his comrades celebrated with tea and "a little bit of Ouzo".

He said: "At times it does come back to you, I can tell you. The bad times, but also the good times."

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