Robert Johnson, D-Day veteran

Robert Johnson, who has died at 98, was a veteran of many of the major theatres of the Second World War, including the D-Day landings and the subsequent battle for Caen, and the disastrous Allied assault on occupied Dieppe in 1942.
By The Newsroom
Published 17th Nov 2018, 10:49 BST

A resident of Walsden, near Todmorden, he had been a Royal Marine for 14 years, and was decorated with the 1939-45 Star, the Africa Star, the Atlantic Star, the France and Germany Star with clasp, the Defence Medal and the Victory Medal.

He was promoted to Corporal in 1942 and Sergeant a year later. He served in several units including 40 Commando (Royal Marines), the first full commando unit, formed in 1942 from volunteers. Part of his time saw him operating behind the lines in Africa,

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Decades after his landing on Sword Beach in June 1944, 30 minutes before the main attack to secure the beachhead, he received France’s highest award, the Legion d’ Honneur.

After his military service, he spent 26 years with the West Riding Fire Service and later the West Yorkshire Fire Service at Slaithwaite, Brighouse and Elland.

“You could say I spent all my life in uniform,” he recalled in 2016. “I loved the fire service, helping people, I’ve enjoyed what I have done.”

His skills were diverse. He had learned to glide while a Fleet Air Arm pilot, and he was a MENSA member, a bowls player and a practitioner of marquetry, calligraphy and tai chi.

His family, with his late wife Mary, includes three sons and a daughter.

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