Jim Booth: Funeral held for Somerset Second World War veteran

Jim Booth died aged 101 in December

The funeral of a World War Two veteran who helped guide troops onto the beach during the D-Day landings has taken place.

Jim Booth was part of a top-secret team of submariners who slipped into the water off Normandy to scout the area.

He died peacefully at the age of 101 at his home in Taunton, Somerset in December.

Speaking ahead of his funeral on Friday, his daughter Victoria Pugh said it was "so sad that we've lost Jim".

"But then you know he was 101 and I think you can't expect people to go on living forever if life is no longer a pleasure to them," she told BBC Spotlight.

Jim Booth joined the Royal Navy when he was 18

"And he was given, by whoever gives you these things, a quiet and peaceful end. And that is what we all have to be grateful for."

Mr Booth joined the Royal Navy at the age of 18 and played a part in the Normandy scouting team ahead of the landing in June 1944.

A former Lord Lieutenant of Somerset said the veteran "brought colour to the lives of people around him".

Mr Booth attending a Remembrance Day commemoration at the Cenotaph in London

Speaking to BBC Radio Somerset about the war in 2015, Mr Booth said they managed to hold out by sleeping and speaking as little as possible.

His crew surfaced on 6 June 1944, successfully guiding landing craft in to Sword Beach.

"We had this enormous light that we had to rig up and get going on the upper deck," he said.

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"We set it all up and then we waited ... it was quite a sight when the whole thing started."

In 2017, Mr Booth was attacked on his own doorstep by a man with a hammer during a burglary.

He survived but suffered serious injuries, and spent nine days in Musgrove Park Hospital.

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