Last member of D-Day veterans group to scatter comrades’ ashes on final trip to Normandy
The only surviving member of a group of D-Day veterans will scatter his comrades’ ashes on his final trip to the beaches of Normandy this week.
Ken Cooke, 98, has decided that the 80th anniversary commemorations this week will be the last time he revisits Gold Beach where he landed as an 18-year-old on 6 June 1944.
He is the last member in the York Normandy Veterans group and will join a dwindling number of elderly former servicemen who are able to return to France to remember the largest ever seaborne invasion which helped turn the course of World War Two.
Mr Cooke told Sky News how he remembers being overwhelmed by the spectacle of what he saw as they approached the beach.
“I was at the side of the landing craft with my arms and elbows on the side…watching all the fireworks,” he said.
“There’s all these explosion, rockets going. All battleships firing, all the shells exploding on the beach.
“It was one big noise.”
Mr Cooke in his wartime days
He was part of the 7th battalion of the Green Howards that day but had never been on a boat before and had only ever visited a beach once – as an eight-year-old boy on a day trip to Skegness.
“I had never seen anything like it,” he said.
“We were cannon fodder. And no doubt about it, we were cannon fodder.
“We had had no training for D-Day. We were just thrown in.”
‘Very, very lucky’
Some 156,000 Allied troops landed on five beaches along the Normandy coast in northern France while 24,000 troops were dropped into the battle from the air.
Despite losing many of his comrades that day Ken made it up Gold Beach while dodging incoming fire from Nazi-held positions.
“We were very, very lucky,” he explained.
Mr Cooke speaks with Sky News’ Tom Parmenter
Mr Cooke said it was only the day after D-Day, when the enormity of what they had been through started to sink in, they began to realise how many men were missing.
A total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself, while in the Battle of Normandy that followed 73,000 Allied forces lost their lives.
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The invasion paved the way for the liberation of France from Nazi occupation and led to victory in Europe for the Allies the following year.
After his war Ken Cooke returned to life in York working at the Rowntree’s confectionery factory for the most of his career.
A British Army column moves inland from Gold Beach following the D-Day landings. Pic: National Archives of Canada via Reuters
Through the York Normandy Veterans group he became close friends with other former servicemen who had also been part of D-Day and the subsequent landings.
He is now the sole surviving member and has described it as an “honour” to take some of the ashes of his close friends Sid Metcalfe and Douglas Petty back over to Normandy this week.
Mr Petty flew 31 missions with bomber command, including raids supporting the D-Day landings.
His funeral took place on what would have been his 100th birthday on 11 January 2023.
The late Douglas Petty
Difficult to comprehend
The great-grandson of Trooper Sid Metcalfe, who died aged 99 on Remembrance Day in 2022, told Sky News he thought the ashes gesture was “incredible”.
George Child, 23, said his family was extremely thankful to Mr Cooke.
He said: “Having someone who has been there 80 years ago going back and being able to actually stand there spreading his ashes where he would have lost all of his friends.
“I think it is incredible really. He is doing that not just for Sid but for everyone in York Normandy Veterans.”
The late Sid Metcalfe
The student filmmaker from Leeds has pieced together his late great-grandfather’s story from landing on the beaches through to being captured as a prisoner of war in the Netherlands.
He added: “I just wouldn’t be able to comprehend what they went through and what was going through their heads.
“I don’t think a lot of people [nowadays] would have the courage to step up and fight.”
Mr Metcalfe’s great-grandson George Child
Part of his great-grandfather’s ashes are at the remembrance garden at Eden Camp, a modern history museum in North Yorkshire which used to be a WW2 prisoner of war camp.
Ken Cooke will spread the remaining ashes in a private service this week in Normandy.
Liverpool have won the Premier League title after a 5-1 victory over Tottenham at Anfield.
Arne Slot’s men did it in impressive style, turning over Spurs in a convincing win.
It was a rocky start for the Reds after Dominic Solanke put the north London side ahead.
However, fortunes quickly changed in the first half as Liverpool scored three times without a response.
Captain Virgil van Dijk (centre) celebrates. Pic: Reuters
Salah on his knees in celebration after the final whistle. Pic: AP
Liverpool’s Harvey Elliott (below) and Jarell Quansah celebrate after full-time. Pic: PA
Slot cheers after the full-time whistle. Pic: AP
In the second half, it took until the 63rd minute for Mohamed Salah to make it 4-1 before a fifth followed.
The Reds have won the title in manager Arne Slot’s first season in charge, and move level with fierce rivals Manchester United on 20 league championships.
But it makes them arguably the most successful English club ever as they have won more European Cup or Champions League titles.
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk told Sky Sports after the final whistle: “It’s special and it’s something that we don’t take for granted. It’s amazing.
“A lot of emotions before the game, during the whole week, but we got the job done and we (are) truly deserved champions of England. (Liverpool is) the most beautiful club in the world and I think we deserve all of this. Let’s enjoy the next couple of weeks and let it sink in.”
Liverpool’s Kostas Tsimikas poses with a Premier League trophy cut out. Pic: Reuters
Manager Arne Slot and his team after the final whistle. Pic: AP
Slot took over last summer from Jurgen Klopp, who guided them to their previous and maiden Premier League title triumph in 2020, when the COVID-19 lockdown saw matches played behind closed doors.
He is the first Dutch manager to win the Premier League and the fifth man to do so in a debut campaign after Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Manuel Pellegrini, and Antonio Conte.
Speaking to Sky Sports he said: “They [the players] did an outstanding job today. The main job was to win. Everyone said we had got it already. But we had to make sure and we got over the line.”
Several players, including Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, and Mohamed Salah, played leading roles in both the 2025 and 2020 campaigns.
Van Dijk and Salah recently signed new contracts extending their careers at the club.
Mohamed Salah takes a selfie with fans after scouring the fourth Liverpool goal. Pic: AP
Fans at Anfield during the game. Pic: AP
Fans in the stands at Anfield before full-time. Pic: Reuters
Liverpool will have to wait until the final game of the season – at home to Crystal Palace on 25 May – to be presented with the Premier League trophy.
It will be the first time the club’s fans will have seen their side lift the top-flight title in person since 1990.
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Two pro-Palestinian demonstrators have thrown red powder on Tower Bridge – just moments before leading runners in the London Marathon went past.
The protesters were arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and remain in custody, said the Metropolitan Police.
A video shared by Youth Demand, which is calling for a trade embargo on Israel, shows two people jumping over a barrier that separates spectators from the race course.
The pair, wearing t-shirts that say “Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel”, are then seen standing in the middle of the road on the bridge.
Pic: LNP
They throw red powder in the air as an official marathon car goes past displaying the race time.
A motorbike with a cameraman on board continues along the route, while a second motorbike stops and one of the riders gets off and pushes the pair out of the way, just before the men’s elite runners pass.
Several police officers then jump over the barrier and detain the pair, the footage shows.
There appeared to be no impact on the marathon.
More than 56,000 participants were expected to take part in the 26.2-mile race through the capital.
Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the men’s elite race in a time of two hours, two minutes and 27 seconds, while Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s-only world record in two hours, 15 minutes and 50 seconds.
Assefa beat the previous best of two hours, 16 minutes and 16 seconds set last year in London by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir.
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Pic: LNP
The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “At around 10.38am, two protesters from Youth Demand jumped over barriers at Tower Bridge and threw red paint on to the road.
“Marathon event staff intervened to remove the protesters from the path of the men’s elite race which was able to pass unobstructed.”
The force added that they were “quickly supported by police officers who arrested the protesters on suspicion of causing a public nuisance”.
The Met said the paint “appeared to be chalk-based” and was not expected to “present a hazard to runners yet to pass this point”.
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