Mark awards Normandy Bar to D-Day Veteran
15 Jan 2010
Mark Hendrick will award a Commemorative Normandy Bar to D-Day Veteran, Maurice Weeks at the Harris Museum on Friday 15th January 2010. The Normandy Commemorative Bar is normally awarded to veterans who were involved in the D-Day Landings by the Normandie Memoire, a non-profit organisation run by the Lower Normandy Regional Council in Caen, France.
The landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy began on Tuesday 6th June 1944, toward the end of the Second World War, which is now commonly known as D-Day. Ground based military forces were landed on the beachhead via an air assault and infantry and armoured troops undertook an amphibious landing on the 50 mile stretch of Normandy coast. The Allies which included American, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand forces landed around 156,000 troops in Normandy, that day.
Mr Weeks’ son-in-law, Ken Youde, approached Mark to request him to contact the Normandy Council on their behalf to see if Mr Weeks would be eligible for the award. Mr Weeks (89) served as a Royal Artillery Gunner, based at Blandford Camp in Dorset from November 1940 to March 1946. The Bar was successfully awarded to Mr Weeks and Mark will award the Bar at a special presentation event at the Harris Museum which will be attended by close family and friends. The Bar is engraved with the words ‘1944-2009 Normandy, Terre de Liberte’ which roughly translates as ‘Freedom of the Land’.
Maurice Weeks said: "I am very pleased and honoured to accept this award not just for myself but on behalf of all D-Day veterans as an acknowledgment of the contribution we made in the liberation of France."
Mark said: “I am delighted to be able to personally present this award to Mr Weeks with all the dignity and respect that he deserves. I look forward to meeting Mr Weeks and thanking him for his enormous contribution and efforts during the war and on D-Day. It is very important to me, as I am sure it is important to most people, that we remember and honour our Veterans.”
This presentation event follows on from the successful presentation event held last July to which Mark invited Veterans Minister, Kevan Jones to Preston to award HM Armed Forces Veterans Badges. Over 40 Veterans badges were awarded that day and it is still possible to for individuals to apply if they think they might be eligible to receive the badge.
The badge is available to all those who have served in HM Armed Forces including the Volunteers and Regular Reserves, and to war widows and widowers who are in receipt of a War Pension. There are no limitations on the duration of service nor on where or when an individual might have served.
Please telephone the Constituency Office on 01772 883575 if you wish to apply for either the HM Armed Forces Veterans Badge or the Commemorative Normandy Bar.