Wisbech war hero Gerry Fleming has died aged 100
Wisbech war hero Gerry Fleming has died - just weeks after celebrating his 100th birthday.
Gerry, who leaves behind one daughter Vicky Carter, her husband Brian, and their two daughters Emma Carter and Beck Edmunds, as well as her husband Kevin Edmunds, died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, on Wednesday.
He was a hero of the D-day Landings, received France’s highest honour as well as being a Freeman of Wisbech.
Family, friends and fellow Second World War veterans joined Gerry on July 25 for a special garden party to celebrate his milestone birthday.
Gerry was married to Anita, his war time sweetheart who died in 1999. The couple met after Gerry’s battalion of the 8th Army swept into Germany in 1945.
Anita was a Yugoslavian student, who had suffered three-years hard labour at the hands of the Nazis. They married in Germany and after the war returned to Wisbech where they had their daughter, Vicky.
Gerry together with fellow D-Day veterans John McIntosh, 94, and Ron Sanderson, 93, were all awarded the Freedom of Wisbech at a special ceremony in December 2017.
All three men were also recipients of the French medal ‘Ordre National de la Legion d’honneur’ - France’s highest honour for their role in the Normandy landings and the liberation of Europe in the second world war.
Gerry served with the 8th Army having enlisted in 1937 in Hull and became part of the transport division, and he could still remember his army number.
At the outbreak of war he found himself in Marseilles and from there he went to Palestine.
Gerry’s battalion saw action in Syria and Iran, before ending up in Egypt in the campaign against Erwin Rommel’s Panzer Army Africa.
After four years in the Middle East, Gerry was granted leave after which he was packed off to Europe starting in France and moving through Belgium and eventually into Germany.
Gerry’s funeral will be held at the Catholic church in Wisbech at 11.15am on September 6 and will be followed by cremation at Fenland Crematorium in March.
