D-Day hero Terry Owen has been honoured by the French government with the country’s top medal for his part in the liberation of France during the Second World War.

The former Royal Marine, from Hoo, was bestowed with the Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur (Legion of Honour) – a decoration established by Napoleon Bonapart in 1802 – just weeks after his 90th birthday.

His daughter Ruth Hobden, said: “Along with the rest of my family, I am extremely proud of him and am so glad he has received this recognition.

“Terry is a modest man who does not want a fuss to be made about receiving the award, but he is thrilled to have it nonetheless and accepts the Legion of Honour medal on behalf of all those comrades who did not return, as well as himself.”

After joining the marines aged 16 and training as a commando a year later, he joined the flotilla that launched the mass assault on the beaches of northern France.

The rigorous military training left him in good stead for the invasion, but nothing could have prepared him for the harrowing onslaught that he described as “legalised suicide”.

"I am extremely proud of him and am so glad he has received this recognition" - Ruth Hobden

He said last year - the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings - how he diced with death on numerous occasions and lost many of his close colleagues.

He recalled how he was bombarded with shells, pulled bloodied bodies on board his landing craft vehicle, nearly drowned and went days without food and water.

But his most prominent memory was when he went to save a deckhand, but got momentarily stuck, just as two bullets whizzed past him.

Mr Owen said: “I went to see how injured he was and suddenly I could not move my right leg. It was like I was cemented to the deck.

“I thought I had been shot. Seconds later the bullets flew past and suddenly I could move my leg again. There was nothing wrong with it. I knew then that it had been the spirit that saved me. If I had moved another couple of inches I would have been killed.”

Mr Owen, of Knights Road, Hoo, recalled another occasion when a bomber with its wings alight was heading for their boat.

He said: “I immediately raised my arms to get the pilot’s attention. If it had hit us we would all be dead.

“He diverted his plane and lost his life to save ours.”

Mr Owen, who has 16 grandchildren, came out of service in September 1946.

He spent his years working in a factory in Reading, then a grocer’s shop and then moved to Chatham and got a job with Southern Water. He spent 29 years at the BP oil refinery in Grain until his retirement.