Retired Pembroke newsagent Eric Robinson has been awarded the Légion d’honneur by the French government in recognition of his army service during World War Two which included the D-Day landings of June 6, 1944.

Eric, who is 91, has recently received his medal and a letter of thanks from the French Ambassador.

The French government has been awarding the Légion d’honneur to D-Day veterans from many different countries for several years, as a way of honouring and thanking those who fought and risked their lives to secure France’s liberation during the Second World War.

Eric, a native of Brigg, Lincolnshire, was in the news trade for almost 60 years. He started out as a newspaper delivery boy at the age of 12 and worked for W.H. Smith & Son for 20 years, managing shops across the north of England, before starting his own business with his wife Brenda. They moved to Pembroke in 1966 and bought the newsagents shop on the East End Square which they ran until their retirement in 1995 when their youngest son Peter took over and extended the business which continues to flourish as Robinson’s convenience store.

Eric is also well known locally as a Normandy Veteran having served with the Lincolnshire Regiment during World War Two from 1942, including landing on Sword beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944. He saw action in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany and after the end of the war he was posted to Palestine and Egypt as part of the ‘peace keeping’ force, finally returning safely to Lincolnshire after being demobbed in 1947.