A YORKSHIRE-BORN war veteran celebrates reaching his 100th birthday today with an influx of cards from the British Legion.
Harold Wilson was born West Lutton in the Yorkshire Wolds to Emily and Tindall.
Just before the start of the Second World War in 1939, Harold joined the Fife and Forfars Yeomanry, part of an armoured tank division.
“I loved life in the Army,” Harold said.
During the war, Harold learnt to drive the Sherman tank with a long-barrelled gun.
Following D-Day in June 1944, Harold’s regiment, part of the 11th Armoured Division, landed at Normandy in Northern France.
They were met with ferocious fighting as the Allies fought their way reclaiming Europe from Hitler’s Germany.
When asked how he thought he survived the war, Harold said: “God knows, I just kept plodding on.
“You didn’t dwell on what you saw because it wouldn’t get you anywhere.
“I learnt to be an ‘automatic’ soldier. It’s what we were trained to do.”
Harold lost many of his friends during the war and was knocked unconscious himself when his tank was hit by an enemy shell.
Harold was demobbed in 1947, returning to wife Jean, to whom he married in 1942. They had three children, Pamela, Ian and Judith.
Harold retired in 1980 as a production clerk in a Lincolnshire steelworks, before moving to Pershore in 2005. Jean saw Harold awarded the Legion d’Honneur before she died in 2019.
British Legion volunteers have compiled 100 cards for Harold’s 100th to ensure that despite lockdown, the former tank driver will be given the attention he deserves.
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