When Len Holton returned from serving in the Second World War, he placed his four medals in a drawer and they were never seen by a soul.

But yesterday his hard-won medals were displayed for the first time at his funeral service, placed on a Union Flag draped over his coffin.

The 99-year-old, who died suddenly on October 31, had served with the bomb disposal unit of the Royal Engineers and saw much action during his military service.

He was on the last boat out of Dunkirk and in the first batch of troops in the Normandy landings.

Mr Holton, of North Street, Bicester, was decorated with campaign medals The France and Germany Star, The 1939-45 Star, the War Medal and The Defence Medal.

Friend David Powell said: “He was a very private person, but he was very proud of taking part in the war. When he got the medals he put them in a drawer, with what I would call his treasures, and that was it.

“I asked if he wanted to wear his medals and he replied ‘what for?’. His medals were still in the same packages he received them in.”

Mr Holton was born in Little Chesterton, the youngest of three children. His brother Don Holton was a former owner and editor of the Bicester Advertiser and sold it in the 1970s.

After Len left school he trained as a painter and decorator with Bicester building firm Jackson’s, but when war was declared he joined the Royal Engineers.

During yesterday’s service at Banbury Crematorium, Paddy Hall, a funeral celebrant, told mourners: “It was his proud boast that as a Sapper he was on the last boat to leave Dunkirk and in the first batch to go back again.

“They landed in Normandy on Sword Beach amidst the thick of the fighting.

“He knew he was lucky to survive, but then he had the added impetus of a new wife waiting back in England.”

He married May in 1944, during leave, and the pair were together until she died in March this year, aged 89.

After the war he returned to Bicester and worked as a painter and decorator until he retired. Mr Holton was the longest serving member of the Ashton Club, a working men’s club, off Sheep Street.