Steve tells me his dad was a dispatch rider delivering final orders for the D-day invasion. Meanwhile, his Uncle’s ship, HMS Norfolk, was moving through the Channel onto station to begin at first light the bombardment of Nazi gun batteries. Another Uncle was preparing his tank in Hampshire. Four days later he too made the crossing in a landing craft …

Back in Abingdon ‘Salute the Soldier Week’ was being organised when the eagerly anticipated D Day Landings became known.

The Abingdon Mayor J L Etty called for a service of prayer for the men serving in the field of battle. Several hundred joined the prayers in front of the Roysse Room.

A week or so later, at the Regal in Abingdon, Mrs Aitken recognised her husband as the Pathe News showed scenes from Normandy.

70 years later, and 100 years since the start of WW1, a wreath, paid for by people in Abingdon, will be laid at the Royal Berks Cemetery this weekend – at Ploegsteert, just south of Ypres in Belgium. Many young men from Abingdon joined the Royal Berks Regiment in both wars.