ONE of the last surviving veterans of the D-Day campaign has died, aged 97.

Bill Pendell, from Stanford in the Vale near Wantage, will still be the model for a garden commemoration in Royal Hospital Chelsea's grounds, ahead of 2019's 75th anniversary.

Mr Pendell landed on Gold beach during D-Day as a 22-year-old despatch rider in the Royal Signals, 11th Armoured Division.

In 1945, he won the Military Medal for bravery in combat, before receiving the Légion d’Honneur – France's highest order of merit – two years ago.

It is hoped that the garden will be relocated to the British Normandy Memorial in France as a permanent installation, after the show.