Winter 2022D-Day veteran from Rochdale celebrates his 100th birthday

A war hero believed to be Rochdale’s only surviving D-Day veteran has celebrated his 100th birthday.

Ken Wright was treated to a golf tournament in his honour at Castle Hawk golf club, where he was greeted by an officer from his old regiment, the Suffolks, piper escorts and standard bearers from the British Legion.

He was chauffeured in a World War Two jeep to the first hole at the club, where he teed off the tournament – aptly named the Ken Wright Cup.

It is believed Ken is the only surviving veteran who landed on Sword Beach with the 8th brigade, part of 3rd British Infantry Division on 6 June 1944; the Royal British Legion has said that Ken is Rochdale’s only D-Day veteran that they are aware of.

One of five children, Ken was born to his Rochdale father, Fred – who served in World War One – and his Shropshire mother, Mary-Ann, on 10 October 1922.

Ken attended Newbold Comprehensive until he was 14 when he went to work in a cotton mill. After a run in with a lorry on the first day of spring when cycling to work, he moved into construction before he was called up to the Army on 15 January 1942.

Ken was called up to the Suffolk regiment, 1st Battalion, where he served until he was demobbed after five years and one week.

Fortunate enough to make it through the war unwounded, he went back into construction before retiring, aged 65.

On 20 March 1948, Ken married Nellie Cockcroft, and they had a son, Alan, in 1954. Alan and his wife, Lorraine, have three children, Dean, 36, Adam, 35, and Laura, 30, and one great-grandchild.

Ken and Nellie were married until her death at the age of 81, on 20 December 2010.

Ken picked up golf as a hobby when he was 50, thanks to his younger brother, and joined Castle Hawk two years later, after picking up a full set of golf clubs from a second-hand shop for £18.

Reflecting on his time in the army as a private, Ken revealed he was one of the first soldiers to land on Sword Beach during the D-Day landings with the 8th brigade, which consisted of 1/ Suffolk regiment (made up of A, B and C companies), 2/ East Yorkshire and 1/South Lancashire.

1/Suffolk was the last battalion of the brigade to land, acting as a reserve and with further instructions beyond the taking of the beach itself.

Part of C company, the rifleman sniper believes he may be one of the few survivors still alive today to have landed on the first day.

The Royal British Legion said that the charity was “aware” of a few D-Day veterans from other regions and platoons who landed on other beaches, but none from Ken’s.

In 2008, Ken made his first return to France since the war, where he and his family visited the grave of Private John Sidlow, his best friend who had been killed in action.

“I didn’t know what town or cemetery he was buried at,” Ken said. “We were driving when we saw a sign saying there was a British cemetery, so we parked up and went to look. Alan and my grandsons were off – and they somehow walked straight to John’s grave, like they knew where he was.”

He has since returned to Normandy for the 70th and 75th anniversaries of the D-Day landings, and plans to return for the 80th in 2024.

In 2016, Ken was appointed to the rank of Chevalier (Knight) in the prestigious Legion of Honour, France’s highest honour.