North Yorkshire Second World War veteran George Chapman has died, aged 86 (From York Press)

North Yorkshire Second World War veteran George Chapman has died, aged 86

12:52pm Thursday 26th November 2009 in News By Jeremy Small

MORE than 65 years after he landed on Normandy’s Gold Beach on D-Day, North Yorkshire Second World War veteran George Chapman has died, aged 86.

When he took part in the invasion on June 6 1944, George, who was a wireless operator in the British Army at the time, was just 20 years old. George, from Slingsby, near Malton, was awarded four medals for his efforts in the war, during which he also served in Holland, where he made friends with a family. His widow, Freda Chapman, said: “He always found somebody to talk to – he was very friendly.”

George was born on September 23, 1923, in Slingsby, where he lived all his life except during the war. He went to Slingsby School, leaving at the age of 14 and going to work at the Castle Howard Cooperative as an apprentice grocer.

But on September 3 1942, George was called up to the army, first going to Strensall Barracks, in York, and then to Whitby, where he trained as a driver and wireless operator. George, who was in the 50th Northumbrian Division 231 brigade, arrived on Gold Beach on the morning of D-Day.

Speaking in 2004 about the conditions on the beach, he said: “There was a gun firing out of a field on the hillside and he was blasting shells on to the beach where we were and this ship came whizzing past us firing a gun into the field and he must have been an expert gunner because it never fired near us.

“We saw a lot of dead bodies and it makes my wife nearly turn over when I tell her about it.”

Towards the end of the day he saw a young man being buried, and as was the custom, his gun was stuck in the ground as a headstone. It was an image that stayed with George. “I remember looking and realising the boy was just 18 and thinking, good gracious, that’s someone’s son, he is so young, which is strange to think now since I was only 20 myself. But that really stuck in my head.”

After the war, George returned to the cooperative, where he met Freda, whom he married on September 1, 1956.

Every month, he used to go to a meeting of the York branch of the Normandy Veterans Association and revisited Normandy on two occasions.

George, who also leaves a daughter, Karen Clayton, three grandchildren, Thomas, William and Ellen, and his brother, Les, died at home on November 19 after suffering from cancer. His funeral is taking place at 11am on Monday at Octon Crematorium, East Yorkshire.