A 95 year old D-Day veteran from Skipton who helped liberate a French village during the Second World War has received a medal from its grateful residents.

Gilbert Masters was a 21 year old member of a tank crew in the 13th/14th Hussars who liberated Plessis-Grimoult in Normandy on August 6, 1944.

Originally from Somerset, he joined the army, was billeted in Skipton and stayed put. He now lives in a nursing home in the town, where he is is regularly visited by daughter, Lynn Wright, and son-in-law Ian Wright.

Mr Wright said his father in law, who about three years ago received the Legion of Honour, the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits, had not been able to attend the ceremony because of his health, but he had visited the village in the past.

After the village had been liberated, its residents dug up the bottles of Calvados, apple brandy made in the region, that they had hidden from the Germans, and shared it with the British soldiers.

The ceremony marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the village and was attended by serving and former soldiers, and many French men and women.

In a letter to Mr Masters, Major General David Rutherford Jones CB, Colonel, The Light Dragoons, said that although Mr Masters had not been able to attend, he wanted him to know he had not been forgotten, and never would be.

He also sent photographs taken at the commemorative event held by The Light Dragoons on Mont Pincon, close to the village.

“It was a wonderful occasion, attended by many serving soldiers, our families, French men and women; and by Major General Stuart Watson, known by you of course, and himself a veteran of the 13th/14th Hussars Normandy campaign. We paused on Mont Picon to remember those who fought there and more widely in World War Two, 75 years ago.”

Major Gen Rutherford Jones, in paying tribute to Mr Masters, added: “Your courage, resilience and humility, and those of your comrades, set the conditions of how my generation, and the generations following me, have and will continue in future to live our lives. We are all eternally grateful to you, not least the French villagers whom you liberated. This medal is their personal gift to you in memory of what you and your peers did for them.”