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BRITAIN’S oldest war hero was laid to rest yesterday, with hundreds lining the streets for his funeral.
Nearly 200 military veterans on motorbikes also paid tribute to Private Donald Rose, who died aged 110.
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At the cenotaph in Ilkeston, Derbys, a bugler played the Last Post.
Donald joined up for World War Two aged 25, and became a sniper in the Queen’s Royal Regiment, fighting in Tunis, North Africa, and Salerno, Italy.
In 1944, he was part of an advance party that placed lamps on beaches in Normandy ahead of the D-Day landings.
Donald suffered a gunshot wound to the leg during the Normandy invasion.
But he quickly returned to Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany before taking part in the liberation of Belsen death camp in April 1945.
He said the secret to his long life was the salty water he had been forced to drink as a Desert Rat at the battles of Tobruk and El Alamein.
Last May, the former dustman — who worked until he was 70 — was well enough to attend VE-Day commemorations held by the Royal British Legion at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
He died on July 11 at Ilkeston’s Canal Vue care home, where he had lived for five years following the death of his wife Jeanette.
There, Douglas drew up a bucket list of activities that included holding a vintage motorbike show at the care home, riding on a fire engine and trying out a flight simulator.
So it was fitting that 186 riders from the Armed Forces Bikers, Royal British Legion Riders Branch and the Household Division Motorcycle Club joined his cortège.
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They followed his hearse for two miles to Ilkeston Town FC.
Junior footballers, lining the route into the ground, held up a poster, reading: “For our tomorrow you gave your today. RIP Donald Rose.”
The funeral service heard the great-grandfather joined the Army because he felt “they needed me to fight”.
He had added: “I wanted to save this country from the fascists.”
Naomi Allsop, who helped Donald draw up his bucket list, described him as a “walking history book”.
But the modest veteran always said: “I didn’t do anything that anybody else wouldn’t have done.”
The Royal British Legion said: “Donald’s life and legacy will forever serve as a poignant reminder of the invaluable sacrifices made by those who served during WW2.”
Parade marshal John Wallace, of Derbyshire Royal British Legion, said: “He epitomised all that was great and all that we have to be grateful for to his generation.”
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