Normandy veteran Henry Rice dies aged 100

World War Two veteran Henry Rice, who survived a near-miss when a torpedo was fired at the boat he was on, has died at the age of 100.

Rice, from Cranleigh in Surrey, was a signalman aboard HMS Eastway as part of the Normandy landings, arriving at Juno Beach five days after D-Day.

He received the Legion d’honneur from the French government and had called for schools to teach children more about the Normandy landings because the “world is dangerous at the moment”.

A spokesperson from the Spirit of Normandy Trust, a charity for veterans, said: “Henry was a great character, with a cheeky smile that endeared him to everyone he met.”

Troops from the UK, the US, Canada, and France attacked German forces on the coast of northern France on 6 June 1944, known as D-Day.

Rice delivered vehicles, men and equipment to reinforce the effort.

It was the largest military naval, air and land operation ever attempted and marked the start of the campaign to liberate Nazi-occupied north-west Europe.

Rice died just two weeks after Normandy veteran Kenneth Hay, who survived being captured just weeks after D-Day and spent years educating children about World War Two, who died at the age of 101.

The Royal Navy said Rice went on to Malta where he was land-based for 12 weeks before travelling through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea.

He spent some time based in the Gulf before going on to Sri Lanka, Burma and Singapore.

The Royal Navy said one of Rice’s close encounters was a torpedo being fired towards the boat he was on, only for the missile to go beneath the hull.