SAM Langford, who has died aged 95, was a popular Second World War veteran who returned home to police the county for the next thirty years.

Mr Langford narrowly avoided death when his glider came under heavy fire during Operation Varsity - an airborne attack on Germany in 1945.

He returned to Oxfordshire with a shrapnel wound and became a policeman and would later be honoured for his role on D-Day.

Harold ‘Sam’ Langford was born on December 21, 1922, in East Challow, near Wantage.

The oldest of four, he grew up in the area with a younger brother and two sisters and went to St Frideswide’s School .

He joined the Army aged 17 shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War - the 5th Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, with whom he landed on Juno Beach on D-Day - June 6, 1944.

He later transferred to the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry when the Airborne Division was looking for volunteers to replace casualties.

Serving with Major John Howard, who masterminded the daring glider raid on Pegasus Bridge, as his commander, took part in the Rhine Crossing (Operation Varsity), which saw Allied troops invading Germany in March 1945.

Private Langford, 23 at the time, took off in a glider from an airfield in Essex and immediately came under heavy fire.

Corporal John Tapping, sat next to him, swapped seats with Private Langford to make it easier to fire his machine gun - just minutes later he was killed by enemy fire.

In March 2015, 70 years later Mr Langford held back the tears as he read out Cpl Tapping's name at a Turning the Pages ceremony at Christ Church.

Shortly after Operation Varsity he was sent home with a shrapnel wound.

Over the next thirty years he worked as a policeman across Oxfordshire, as well as Windsor.

He married his wife Edna in Didcot in 1947, shortly after joining the force and they had two children, Vivien and Marion.

His policing took the family to Abingdon, Woodstock and Didcot - but his daughter Marion said it was his time in Blewbury from 1957-67 that he enjoyed the most.

In 1976 he retired and worked for energy company National Power as a security guard.

In later life he enjoyed pheasant shooting at Well Barn Estate.

He was also heavily involved with the Oxford branch of the Royal Green Jackets Association - he continued to sell poppies across the county into his 90s.

In 2016 he received the Legion d'Honneur, the highest military accolade in France.

He died on June 16, and is survived by his wife Edna, daughter Marion Hall and Vivien Wilkins, and four grandchildren.

His funeral takes place at Oxford Crematorium at 11am on July 17.