York’s last surviving D-Day veteran is set to receive the city’s top honour.
Ken Cooke will have the Freedom of the City of York conferred on him at a York Council meeting next Thursday (16 July).
Council meeting papers stated the honour was intended to formally recognise his exceptional services to the city and its people.
It comes almost a year after the Second World War veteran celebrated his 100th birthday.
Mr Cooke was born on August 8, 1925.
He enlisted in the British Army’s Green Howards infantry regiment aged 18 and stormed Normandy’s Gold Beach on June 6 1944.
Allied landings on France’s northern coast for Operation Overlord marked the start of liberation of western Europe from Nazi occupation.
Speaking to The Press for the 80th anniversary of D-Day in 2024, Mr Cooke said he had never even been on a ship or to a beach before the landings.
He said: “We could see the battleships firing, see the shells bursting ahead, the smoke and dust.
“And the noise – it was more than horrendous – just noise, noise, noise.”
Mr Cooke added he remembered being worried about his socks getting wet as he waded through the sea and then ran towards the beach under a hail of gunfire.
He took part in the liberation of a number of Normandy villages before being hit by shrapnel in July and being sent back home to convalesce.
His time in hospital was followed by his return to action in February 1945, this time with the 52nd Highland Light Infantry.
The veteran said: “I joined them over the French border in a place called Goch.
“I said ‘Why can’t I go back to my own regiment?’ They said ‘well, your Battalion got hammered at Nijmegen (in The Netherlands) and they all got split up’, being sent to different regiments that were short of men.”
Mr Cooke went back into hospital after suffering from shell shock, what would now be known as post-traumatic stress disorder, and was there when the war in Europe ended in May 1945.
He went on to work at York’s Rowntree factory where he met his wife Joan.
Mr Cooke was named The Press’ Community Pride Person of the Year in 2023.
He travelled to France in 2024 to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
He and other veterans were saluted by serving members of the French army as part of commemorative events in Ver-sur-Mer and Omaha Beach attended by heads of state.
Mr Cooke has since served as an ambassador for Normandy veterans in York and laid wreaths on Remembrance Day.
He has also helped to educate young people about the Second World War and has worked to ensure the sacrifices of him and others are not forgotten.
