It is with great sadness that Monmouth Branch reports that Shipmate Derek Jones ‘crossed the bar’ on Wednesday 17th April.

Derek was a quiet, gentle, modest man and a friend to all. A Life Member of the RNA, he was the last remaining Founder Member of the Branch and still a loyal supporter 39 years later. He was a Veteran of the D-Day landings in Normandy where, as an 18-year-old Able Seaman Signalman, he served in Landing Craft taking US forces from Weymouth and Portland to Omaha beach. He made a total of 13 trips crossings. Earlier this year, when requested to be interviewed about his experiences, he declined, saying that “he did not wish to remember the sights he saw on those trips across the Channel”. A holder of the Legion D’Honneur, Derek would have reached his 98th birthday in July this year.

Derek’s LCT at anchor in the Suez Canal & dressed overall in celebration of VJ Day in 1945. They were enroute to India to hand over the LCT to the Indian Navy

Derek received his Legion D’Honneur from Commodore Toby Elliott during the Coronel Service in St Mary’s Priory Church, Monmouth on 1st November 2017.

The Coronel Service is held every year on the Anniversary of the Battle of Coronel which took place off the West Coast of Chile on 1st November 1914.