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'The master of the household has received her majesties command to invite Mr Donald King to a luncheon to be given in the gardens of Buckingham Palace by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh on Sunday 10th July 2005 at 1 o’clock to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War Two.'

Now, her Majesty doesn’t dish out invitations like that to any old body. So why was Donald King selected? Here’s a clue:

[Radio Announcement] ‘The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Home Service. Here is a special bulletin read by John Snagge ‘D-Day has come. Early this morning, the Allies began their assault on the North-Western face of Hitlers European fortress’……

'That morning, we were all lined up in this little landing craft. Big ramps were ready to be launched on to the water. We were up to our waists in water when we ran down the ramps, and ran up the beach. I was ready for anything, and there was a terrific noise and bullets flying about, and although they were about 15 feet above your head they just seemed to be just missing you all the time, and Flail tanks were going about. This was all amazing and all adding to the noise and turmoil and people shouting. Heaps and heaps of bodies, especially Canadians were all lying along the side of the shore. They had been in the first wave, just minutes ahead of us, and machine guns had killed a great many of those men.'

Donald King had volunteered for the Royal Marine Commandoes in 1941 as soon as he was old enough and no-one can take away from him his memories of Juno Beach in 1944. Other memories are not so painful. From Donald’s experience, it would appear we were getting on better with the French 60 years ago than we seem to be at the moment.

'Just as I went into this wee village of Saint Aubin sur Mer, there was a lady. She was wearing a white night-gown or a white ball-gown. She approached me and she threw her arms around my neck and gave me a big, big kiss; a passionate kiss of welcome, and I remember saying to myself ‘Donald, this is great, this is grand, I’m jolly glad I came.'

Donald says he’s looking forward to sharing his memories at Buckingham palace on Sunday, and when he meets the Duke of Edinburgh, he’s going to remind him they’ve met before:

'When I was a boy at a school in Glasgow, I went through, about 1936 to represent my school at Golden Acre a playing field belonging to George Herriot’s School of Edinburgh to take part in a high-jump competition. And there was a young boy with fair hair that beat me in the high-jump. I said to someone "who is that young chap?" And they replied "oh, that’s Prince Philip of Greece".

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Becky Barugh of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Donald King and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

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