York’s last surviving D-Day veteran Ken Cooke has marked Armistice Day by unveiling a new bench to remember the fallen.
Ken, 101, laid a poppy wreath on the bench on Soldiers’ Lawn in York Cemetery on Wednesday (November 11) and said it “means a lot to us”.
“It helps us to remember our friends that didn’t come home,” said Ken, who was a young private with the Green Howards when he landed at Gold Beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944.
He praised Len Plows and Son, which made the bench, saying they “have done a magnificent job and I’m very pleased”.
Ken, who received the Freedom of the City of York earlier this year, said his thoughts “go back to Normandy” and his “friends who didn’t come home” on Armistice Day.
“At this time of the year, I get these memories coming back – I just sit and think about what happened years ago,” he said. “And I try to centre myself – I don’t get upset about it now; I did once upon a time but not now.”
Ken talks in schools to educate the next generation about the war and said: “We try to explain that in the future it’s up to them to ensure that what we went through never happens again.”
Speaking to The Press for the 80th anniversary of D-Day in 2024, Ken said he had never even been on a ship or to a beach before the landings in Normandy.
“We could see the battleships firing, see the shells bursting ahead, the smoke and dust,” he said. “And the noise – it was more than horrendous – just noise, noise, noise.”
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Ken returned to Normandy for VE Day last year and before setting off, revealed to The Press the trip meant he “had to turn down King Charles” who had invited the veteran to a garden party.
Ken said he even had to decline an invite from Princess Anne to speak at a VE Day service in 2024 because he was double-booked. “I’m in the bad books, I think,” he joked at the time.
York and North Yorkshire fall silent on Armistice Day
Meanwhile, services were held across York and North Yorkshire as the area fell silent at 11am on Wednesday to commemorate the end of the First World War and to remember those who have died in conflicts.
North Yorkshire Council leader Cllr Carl Les said the day “offers us a moment to reflect on all those who have given the ultimate sacrifice while serving their country”.
“With each passing year, it would be easy for the commemorations to lessen in their significance from where they originated,” he said.
“But with the conflicts that are still very evident across the world, it is as important today as ever to continue the tradition of commemorating all of those who have lost their lives in wars.”
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