Suffolk funeral for one of last D-Day veterans, aged 100

Joe Cattini, pictured at Horse Guards Parade on Remembrance Sunday 2021, was a "complete and utter charmer", his daughter Fran said

The life of one of Britain's last D-Day veterans has been celebrated at his funeral, following his death aged 100.

Joe Cattini was just 21 when he drove a truck loaded with petrol and ammunition off a ship in one of the first waves of the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944.

He died at a care home in Stowmarket, Suffolk, on 18 April.

His funeral in Bury St Edmunds was attended by several generations of his family, members of the Royal Regiment Artillery and veterans groups.

Mr Cattini landed on Gold Beach on D-Day as a bombardier in the 86th Field Regiment of the Hertfordshire Yeomanry.

His daughter Fran Bradshaw said he did not speak much about his experience until after the 70th anniversary, and was then "transformed" by veterans' events in the last 10 years of his life.

'One of the most positive men'

"I think it was the fact of meeting other veterans that prompted him, and all the daughters and sons of the veterans all said it was their mechanism to get through it basically," she said.

"They just parcelled it up, put it away, and once they started talking it was incredible, the tears came and we heard such amazing stories.

"He told the story of coming off the ship with his truck and being quite scared in case he got a direct hit which would have meant he would be blown sky-high."

Joe Cattini, pictured in uniform, became an electrician after active service

She described her father, who lived in Eastleigh, Hampshire, until his final months, as a "complete and utter charmer".

"He was perhaps one of the most positive men you've ever met," said Mrs Bradshaw.

"My sister and I would often say to him 'how come you can wake up every morning like that?' and his answer to that was having survived the war he wanted to make every day count.

"The fact he was here for 100 years was fantastic but I think it was down to his positivity."

Joe Cattini, with daughter Fran Bradshaw, was welcomed at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the Normandy Landings in 2021

Speaking of the various groups and memorial events he had attended, she added: "He was respected and he was honoured in a way that he hadn't been before.

"He was shocked by people in Normandy clapping when they went down the road.

"It was amazing."

Joe Cattini's coffin was draped in a Royal Artillery Regiment standard

She added her father, whose full name was Alberto Giuseppe Antonio Cattini, had had "an incredible life" and "would have been incredibly humbled" by tributes to him.

"Dad always said they weren't the heroes, they were the lucky ones that survived," she said.

"The heroes were the ones whose names appeared on the Normandy memorial, the ones that lost their lives.

"I think while he was thrilled with the attention he got in the last 10 years he was also humbled by the fact he felt he was so privileged to still be here."