Second World War veteran died as the Last Post played at 11am on Remembrance Sunday
Ralph Jones, who was days short of 94th birthday, was shot four times during the D-Day invasion of Normandy
A SECOND World War hero died as the Last Post played at 11 am on Remembrance Sunday, it emerged yesterday.
Ralph Jones slipped away as he held the hands of two nurses in hospital - poignantly, at exactly the same time as the Last Post sounded across the nation.
He was just six days short of his 94th birthday where he was due to be reunited with two comrades who fought with him side by side in the 13th Battalion 6th Airborne Division during the Allied invasion in June 1944.
Brave Ralph was shot four times fighting in the thick of the Normandy Landings and the Allied push into Germany.
One bullet remained lodged in his stomach permanently.
Friends said the world was “a poorer place for his passing”.
Ty Platten, chief executive of Broughton House care home for ex-servicemen in Salford, Gtr Manchester, paid tribute to Ralph.
He said: “Paratrooper Ralph Jones was a veteran of the Normandy Landings and the Rhine Crossing. "Ralph was a man shot four times during both engagements.
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“That alone did not define Ralph as a man. What did was his modesty and humility as a man. Ralph was an ordinary man who did extraordinary things from 1940 to 1945.
“When his people and his country’s sovereignty were threatened, he not only defended the rights of his fellow countrymen but he went into Europe and defended the rights of his fellow Europeans.
“He was a man who walked this earth with courage and humility, and the world is a poorer place for his passing.”
More than 100 guests had been due to attend his 94th birthday.