HIS coffin was draped in a Union flag and fellow veterans stood to attention as he was carried into the chapel to a short blast from the buglers.

Dickie Atkinson, the Jarrow-born former bricklayer, who grew up in Felling, Gateshead, lived most of his life in quiet anonymity.

But his late teens and early 20s were remarkable, and saw him take part in several major campaigns to help win the Second World War.

He was, until his death, aged 98, on April 25, the last surviving member of Durham Light Infantry to have fought at D-Day.

Major Chris Lawton, from the DLI Association, said: “It is is the end of an era for us.”

Mr Atkinson, who served with 9DLI, joined the Territorial Army as an 18-year-old, in 1938, a year before war was declared.

He was evacuated at Dunkirk, served in Egypt, Cyprus, Iraq and the North African Desert, seeing action at Gazala and Mersa Matruh, where he was wounded.

After he recovered, Mr Atkinson took part in the Sicily landings in July 1943 and fought at Primosole Bridge, going on to take part in the Normandy landings on D-Day.

He was a member of British and Canadian forces who liberated the Nazi concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen, en route to Hamburg, and served in Germany after the war until 1946, when he was demobbed.

Back in Britain, he settled down with Joan, the young woman he met on a London railway platform, in January 1944: she served with the Auxiliary Territorial Service.

Using his tradesman’s skills, he laid many of the bricks at their family home in Whitley Bay and the couple went on to have two daughters, Brenda and Cynthia, a son, Chris, six grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

Mr Atkinson, who returned to Normandy for the 60th anniversary of D-Day in 2004, received the Legion d’honneur for his part in helping liberated German-occupied France.

Eric Donjon, Consul Honoraire de France, who knew him personally, said: “Dick was the recipient of the highest accolade we can give to any man alive and it was in thanks for his personal participation in D-Day. He did all of the campaigns you can think of, and was happy to share his experiences.”

His death came two days before what would have been his and Joan’s 75th wedding anniversary.

During a moving and poignant funeral service at Tynemouth Crematorium, messages were read out from Catchgate Primary school, near Stanley, expressing sympathy because it was one of the school’s Mr Atkinson had visited to share his wartime experiences to educate children.

The congregation sang Abide With Me, the DLI’s regimental hymn, before the buglers played the haunting bars of The Last Post.

Father David Raine, who is padre for the DLI Association, said: “Dickie will be remembered by his family and his friends and the stories about him will be passed on from generation to generation, of that I have absolutely no doubt.”