A D-Day veteran who waited 70 years to receive France’s highest honour has been left disappointed after being sent someone else’s medal.
Proud Fred Pope, 92, was told his Legion d’Honneur had arrived at his local post office and went off to collect it.
But his joy was short-lived as he found it was addressed to another person and he handed it back.
Fred, who was one of thousands of troops who landed on Gold Beach in 1944, is now hoping to get his real medal in time for his 70th wedding anniversary on Wednesday.
“It has been a nightmare,” said Fred, who lives with his wife Jeane, 88, in Bicester, Oxon.
“We did hope to get the medal in time for our wedding anniversary next week.”
On the 70th anniversary of D-Day in June 2014, the French President announced that the Legion d’Honneur medals would be awarded to veterans to thank and honour those who helped liberate France.
Great-grandad Fred finally received a note from Royal Mail telling him his medal had arrived at the local post office.
But when he arrived he discovered it had been addressed to a Mr Harry Paintin instead.
“It has been terrible, very disappointing,” he said.
“I sent it back to Whitehall. To think I nearly had the medal in my hands.
“I sent it back because Mr Paintin might be waiting for his medal too.”
As young man Fred was one of thousands of troops to land in one of the five areas of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944.
A Royal Artillery gunner with the London Welsh Regiment, he fought across France, Belgium, Germany and was in Hamburg in August 1944 when all of northern France had been liberated.
While he doesn’t talk about his experience of the Second World War Fred said he would be proud to receive the medal.
“There are not many of us left,” he said.
“I’m nearly 93 and I was just 20-years-old when I went to France.”
The retired plasterer and his wife, a former Red Cross nurse, will celebrate 70-years of marriage on Wednesday.
Jeane said: “Fred has kept very quiet about D-Day and is not one to talk about it, so with this it is just a shame.
“It would be great to be able to get the medal back in time for our anniversary.”
The Ministry of Defence said France has approved more than 3,200 Legion d’Honneur medals and they were working hard to ensure British veterans get theirs as soon as possible.
