ERIC McIntyre has finally got his war medals.

He was too modest to apply for them after the Second World War.

But at the age of 90, after his family intervened, he can now proudly display them.

He served with the 1st Northamptonshire Yeomanry and was heavily involved in the aftermath of the D-Day invasion of France in June 1944.

He crossed the Channel from Portsmouth in a vessel hauling one of the famous Mulberry harbours, which allowed troops and supplies to dock on the French coast.

As a fitter, he then followed the advancing Allied troops through France, Belgium and Holland, helping to keep their weapons and equipment in good order as the German forces retreated.

Mr McIntyre, who lives at Mayott House care home in Ock Street, Abingdon, went to the county council school – now Carswell School – in the town.

He left on his 14th birthday and started work the next day in the waterworks department of Abingdon Borough Council.

He worked for the council and its successor, the Vale of White Horse District Council, for 46 years, rising to general maintenance foreman.

He was the third generation of his family to go into public service – his grandfather and two uncles also worked for the council.

He and his uncles, Harry and Ted, became known locally as the ‘Three Macs’.

Mr McIntyre and his council team were responsible for the removal of the Queen Victoria statue from Market Place to the Abbey Grounds during a revamp of the town centre.

And his local knowledge helped to solve the mystery of why the town’s war memorial in High Street was sinking.

He revealed that underneath it, there was a well, from which water was pumped to maintain supplies at Abingdon School, the highest point in the town, which often suffered from lack of pressure in the water mains.

Mr McIntyre’s long service with the two councils earned him the British Empire Medal, which he received from the then Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, Colonel Sir John Thomson, in 1978, three years before he retired.