AN RAF driver from the Second World War has received a medal for his exploits - 58 years after the end of the war.

Great-grandfather Leslie Iceton, 88, from east Redcar, said he qualified for the medal for serving as an RAF driver.

But a recent TV documentary series, by national journalist Max Hastings about the relationship between Winston Churchill and legendary RAF leader Bomber Arthur Harris, among other war leaders, prompted Mr Iceton to call The Northern Echo.

Mr Iceton said he had been fascinated by Churchill's treatment of Bomber Harris in the Channel 4 documentary presented by Hastings.

Clutching his new medal, he said it should have been struck at the end of the war, in 1945, but Churchill scuppered the plan, possibly as a result of disputes with Harris.

He said: "He sacked Bomber Harris, like he did a lot of other Army and RAF men leading the war effort.

"He was sacked by Churchill in 1944. Harris had wanted the medal struck for everyone in the RAF back in 1945 but Churchill said 'no'. Why, I don't know. Anyway they struck it recently for everyone who served. I'm very proud to have it."

Mr Iceton's late wife, Gladys, was an "Aycliffe Angel" munitions worker in the war.

He only went on one actual flying expedition, when he helped take food to the starving people of the Netherlands in an unarmed plane in 1945.

Mr Iceton served in North Lincolnshire and at other RAF bases in Britain as a driver.