Last Royal Navy veteran of Dunkirk dies aged 102 just days short of 103rd birthday

A former sailor who was believed to be the last Royal Navy veteran to have served at Dunkirk has died. Lawrence Churcher, who was born in Portsmouth, passed away at a care home in nearby Fareham at the age of 102.

The veteran was just days short of his 103rd birthday, according to the Second World War veteran charity, Project 71. The charity said it was believed that Mr Churcher was thought to be the last known naval veteran who was involved in the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940.

Project 71 paid tribute to Mr Churcher in a Facebook post which read: “A truly remarkable man, loved and respected by all who knew him. Stand down Lawrence, your duty is done. It has been an honour to have known you.”

The charity included a few photos of the Royal Navy veteran in their post including an old photo of Mr Churcher in uniform next to his brothers and a photo of him celebrating his 98th birthday at Portsmouth Football Club.

Mr Churcher was previously awarded the Legion d’Honneur after being posted to HMS Eagle at the start of the war, landing in France in May 1940 to help supply ammunition to the front lines. The veteran was posted to the railhead outside Dunkirk just weeks before the evacuation took place.

Project 71 said: “When he, together with thousands of others of the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) was ordered to pull back to the beaches, he began looking for the Hampshire Regiment in the hope of finding his two brothers, Edward and George.

“Amazingly they met each other and managed to sail back to the UK on the same ship.”

Mr Churcher reportedly said: “When my brothers found me, I just felt relief. There were so many soldiers there and continuous aircraft dropping bombs and strafing us, I had so many things on my mind until I got on board of our ship.

“One fella leaned on my shoulder, gave a sigh of relief and said ‘Thank God we’ve got a Navy’ and that sort of churned it up inside of me. We knew we had to get those soldiers back from Dunkirk.”

Following the evacuation of Dunkirk, Mr Churcher then went on to serve in the Mediterranean, at D-Day and was in the Far East when the war ended. Following the war, Mr Churcher became a football referee.