A celebratory and proud welcome greeted a Second World War solider when he returned home from a very special D-Day visit.

Geoffrey Litherland, who lives at Peelers Court in Bridport, was one of around 300 veterans who landed in Normandy on D-Day 75 years ago who revisited the beaches this year.

The cruise trip was organised by the Royal British Legion to commemorate the momentous anniversary and events were held in Portsmouth and in Normandy, with the veterans visiting Dunkirk, Bayeux and Pegasus Bridge.

Mr Litherland said: “I have never been on a trip like it in my life - it was fantastic.

“I think the highlight for me was the ceremony in Bayeux Cemetery, which was a brilliant day, but very moving, terrible really, I can hardly talk about it.

“I just can’t get over it, the amount of people that were there and the magnitude of it. Everyone wants to stop and talk to you.

“When we got off the boat, we were talking to some guys about where we were from. One guy asked me, and I said I used to live in Four Oaks, and he said he did and that’s in the Midlands. It turns out he is the same age as me and went to the same school as me.

“It was fantastic having all the lads on the boat.

“Another good thing was all the VIPs mixed with the old boys. I kissed Theresa May, spoke to Prince Charles and met his wife Camilla again. I met her four years ago at Pegasus Bridge. She came to me and said, ‘I know you don’t I, I remember you from four years ago on Pegasus bridge’.

“There was also Nichola Sturgeon, she is so sweet.”

All the residents of Peelers Court gathered together to welcome him home from his special trip.

Carol Williams, development manager at Peelers Court said: “The residents had watched the trip all week on the television, took photos of Geoffrey on TV and they were all so proud of him.

“They all dressed up in red, white and blue.”

Mr Litherland served in the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry 3rd Division with his twin brother Ronald, a platoon which also had two other sets of twins.

They left Shoreham on D-Day, landing at Sword Beach in the morning around 10.30am.

Mr Litherland added: “We set sail in the early evening to go across, it was a bit rough, and I was in a tank landing craft and they just dropped the front down and drive straight off.

“When we got near the coast, the skipper said he was going to ram the beach and they got us right on the beach, I was in a Brenton carrier and we landed and drove straight off and within two seconds we were off the beach. There was nothing in the way at all when we landed because it was early on. We were the second brigade to land.”

During his service, he said that his brother was wounded twice but he “never got a scratch”.

He said: “The only thing I had was I had to go to hospital with infected hepatitis, which I caught from the German trenches I believe.

“We would sometimes use the German trenches if they had vacated as they were good diggers. It saved us digging some more.”