D-day veteran's funeral: Service held for Cyril Banks

  • Published
Related Topics
Funeral cortege arriving at crematorium in HarlowImage source, Stuart Woodward/BBC
Image caption,

Cyril Banks was laid to rest on Monday

About 100 people, including Chelsea Pensioners, attended the funeral of a World War Two D-Day veteran.

Cyril Banks, from Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, died aged 97 on 6 May.

He enlisted in the Royal Navy aged 18 in 1943 and was deployed on mine-sweeping operations off "Gold Beach" for the Normandy landings in 1944.

Also a prolific fundraiser, his funeral took place at Parndon Wood Road Crematorium near Harlow, Essex, on Monday.

After the war he served in South East Asia, where he assisted in the repatriation of Australian prisoner of wars.

This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser.View original content on Twitter
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
Skip twitter post by BBC Essex

Allow Twitter content?

This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
End of twitter post by BBC Essex

Mr Banks made the headlines when in 2016, the veteran, then aged 91, had his £9,000 life savings stolen from him by fraudsters who pretended to be from the Met Police.

An online fundraising page set up following the scam raised £18,000 - half of which he gave away to charity.

Image source, Stuart Woodward/BBC
Image caption,

About 100 people attended Monday's service

He also raised £16,000 for The Not Forgotten Association, external, which helps serving and ex-service men and women, and once abseiled down Harlow's water tower to help raise additional funds.

Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, external, Instagram, external and Twitter, external. If you have a story suggestion email eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk, external

Related Internet Links

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.