IT was a fitting send-off for one of the last Paras to fight in the Battle of Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge and the invasion of Germany.
Leonard Trewin was given military honours at his funeral at Westerleigh Crematorium on October 22.
Escorted from his son Mike’s home in Yate to the crematorium by motorbikes from the Airborne Forces Riders group, the hearse was then led by standard bearers from the Royal British Legion and Parachute Regimental Association, as well as the Parachute Regiment mascot, Pegasus the pony.
His coffin, draped in the Union flag, was carried into the Waterside Chapel by six Paras, and followed by regimental Lieutenant Colonel Liam Cradden.
About 150 mourners, led by Len’s son Mike, daughter-in-law Michelle and the rest of the family, attended a funeral that reflected not only his service but his character, sense of humour and the love and respect in which he was held.
Friends and fellow veterans were joined by civic figures, some travelling from France and Belgium to be there.
Known to all as Len, the father, grandfather and great-grandfather died in September, just over a month after his 101st birthday.
Reading the eulogy, celebrant Lara Nash said Len was a “laid-back chap”, who didn’t have a bad bone in his body.
As well as Len’s wartime service – including the liberation of a German labour camp where he met his wife Gerda, who had been interned for refusing to work for Hitler’s war machine – family life with children Peter John and Mike, his working life at Fawley oil refinery in Hampshire and his later years in Yate, where he liked to walk to Wapley Bushes, were remembered.
Lara said Trewin Lodge, the retirement home named in his honour, “stands as a permanent memorial to Len’s service to his country and to the amazing man he was”, adding: “He will never be forgotten because he made a mark on all of those he came into contact with.”
Smile could ‘light up the darkest days’
Granddaughter Katie said Len’s smile “could light up the darkest days” and remembered how he joked that the shrapnel lodged in his eyelid was his “souvenir of the war”.
She said: “You were the heart of our family.”
‘One of the last of our heroic World War Two veterans’
Parachute Regiment Association secretary Paul Raison, who knew Len well from many trips to commemorations in Britain and Europe, had to pause as he fought his emotions giving his tribute.
He recounted funny and serious moments, from drinking gin and tonic or Bacardi and Coke on the coach to a moving account Len and a fellow veteran gave during a visit to their Operation Varsity drop zone describing the day they jumped from a plane over the Rhine in 1945.
He said: “You could have heard a pin drop as they recounted what they had experienced.”
Paul also described being with Len when he was presented with the Legion d’Honneur in France in 2019, in recognition of his role in liberating the country.
He said: “I’ve never seen a man look so happy and proud
“Len was one of the last of our heroic World War Two veterans, a generation of men who we will never see the likes of again
“I’m proud to have known him and to have called him a friend.”
Len’s coffin entered the chapel to the Ride of the Valkyries, recorded by the Parachute Regiment Band.
The Last Post was played at the committal, before the service ended with Green On!, the paratrooper song.