A D-DAY war veteran has received the highest honour from the French Government more than 70 years after landing on the beaches of Normandy.

Vernon Jones, had just turned 21 when he landed on Gold beach in June 1944 and finally received the Legion d’honneur in the post last week.

The 92-year-old from Steventon said it was a great honour but the 70-year delay meant that many of his friends missed out.

He said: “I’m very pleased to receive it after all these years. Without the work of our men the world would be a very different place today. I would like to have had it about 70 years ago.”

In 2014 the French Government announced it would recognise the selfless acts of heroism and determination displayed by all surviving veterans of the Normandy landings by awarding them the Legion d’honneur – the country’s highest honour.

Part of the 2nd Battalion, The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, Private Vernon Jones landed on Gold Beach on June 6, 1944 following lengthy training operations.

Mr Jones was in the second landing team tasked with unloading equipment as his colleagues fought to take the beachhead.

Of more than 600 men in the battalion, Mr Jones said there were just five left to receive the medal.

He said: “I’m very fortunate, I’m 92 but I don’t feel it and I’m one of the last few survivors.

“I have spoken to a friend in Yorkshire who has just got his too, but there would have hundreds who have missed out.

“I don’t know the politics behind it but the French Government announced it on the 70th anniversary last year.”

In August four men were awarded the same medal by French President Francoise Hollande two days after apprehending a terrorist on a train in France.

Mr Jones said recognition for the heroic actions of him and his companions should have been treated with the same haste.

He said: “We fought in France and for its people for three months and have had to wait 70 years.”

Mr Jones, the son of a miner, was brought up in South Wales but moved to Abingdon with his family in 1931.

After attending what is now Carswell Community School, he was called up and joined the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, based at Cowley Barracks in January 1942.

But during training he contracted tonsillitis and was sent home. When he returned, a few months later his regiment had already graduated and he joined 2nd Battalion, The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment took part in the Normandy landings.

Following D-Day, Mr Jones re-joined the Ox and Bucks Light Infantry, its 1st Battalion, and fought in France, Belgium and Holland and into Germany.

In February 1945 Mr Jones was blown up by a landmine, but he returned to action to and made it to Hamburg in May 1945, returning home in December 1946.

He lives in Steventon with his wife Hilda.