A NORMANDY veteran who went on to become a football administrator in Yorkshire for half a century has died, aged 89.

Tommy Dixon, of Westbourne Grove, Selby, who was wounded in Normandy after the Allied landings, was the chairman of the former Goole branch of the Normandy Veterans Association for many years.

He introduced a ceremony in which Selby school children observed two-minutes' silence at 11am each November 11 – marking the time the guns stopped firing on November 11, 1918 - and laying poppy crosses on war graves in Selby Cemetery.

He told how the ceremony had been inspired when he and others watched schoolchildren in France and Holland lay flowers on war graves.

His son Andrew said Mr Dixon had been involved in football administration for 50 years, including as a referee in the West Riding League and as an assessor of other referees.

"He was president of the Barkston Ash FA and chairman of the North Counties East League," he said.

The son of Labour councillor Herbert Dixon, Mr Dixon leaves a widow Myra and a daughter Christine as well as his son Andrew.

He was a member and former president of Selby Bowling Club and a former president of Ye Fraternite of Olde Selebians, a group founded in 1921 to "promote, cultivate and develop the welfare of Selby and its inhabitants" and to "foster its traditions".

He also ran general stores in Ousegate, Selby, and in Denison Road, before going on to become subpostmaster of Cawood for 13 years. He was involved in the village's gala committee for many years, as well as the organisation of the Selby marathon.

His funeral takes place at 10.30am on Wednesday at St Mary's RC Church in Selby, followed by burial at Selby Cemetery, with the collection raising money for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal.