David Mylchreest, a Manx veteran of the Normandy landings, has died in France at the age of 99.

Captain Mylchreest was 20 years old when he landed on the beach at Arromanches-les-Bains on June 12, 1944, with the 43rd Wessex Infantry Division.

As a proud Manxman, David refused to renew his British passport later in life, proclaiming: ‘I’m Manx, not British or English.’

Born Michael David Mylchreest in the island, he used his middle name, which he got from his uncle who died during the Battle of the Somme in the First World War.

Mr Mylchreest was the son of a pastor who had served as a British army chaplain in Belgium during the First World War, where his job was to bury dead soldiers and send letters to their families informing them of their loss.

He left the island and moved to Devon. When he was at school in Exeter, having moved with his father, Mr Mylchreest followed in the footsteps of his friend Nigel and joined the army, sneaking out of school one day to enlist. Nigel was one of more than 1,400 men who died aboard HMS Hood when Germans sank it during the Battle of the Denmark Strait.

In a podcast interview with French journalist Clément Horvath in 2021, Mr Mylchreest said: ‘I went straight to the barracks, passed the medical tests and answered some questions, when they asked me how old I was, I told them I was 18.’

On returning to the school, the headmaster tried to call his father to nullify the arrangement.

Mr Mylchreest remembered his dad saying ;“Could you congratulate my son for me?” and hanging up the phone.’

He then went on to be assigned to the 43rd Wessex Division, with his first job guarding the Eastbourne coast against a potential German invasion.

Having landed in Normandy on June 12, 1944, and by then a 20-year-old second lieutenant, Mr Mylchreest fought through northern France, Belgium and Holland with the British army, and in doing so, liberated the key French town of Vernon, which straddles the river Seine.

As his division progressed through Normandy, David found himself in charge of 200 German prisoners.

He said: ‘The British soldiers were good to them. The ordinary German soldier was like us, but the average SS soldier was despicable.’

He believed he and his crew were the first allied soldiers to cross the river Seine in the initial drive towards Berlin.

He said: ‘The other storm boats didn’t start, but mine started with the first pull, so I always claimed I was the first soldier to cross the Seine.’

Throughout the Battle of Normandy David was involved in some of the fiercest fights of the campaign around towns like Argenten and Falaise as well as the battles for Hill 112 and Mont Pinçon, both of which were located near Caen.

Mr Mylchreest’s war ended at the Battle of Arnhem, in Elst in the Netherlands in September 1944, after he was wounded in battle and sent to Richmond Park, in England for rehab.

He was eventually made a captain and sent back to the front when he heard that the Germans had surrendered and many years later, Mr Mylchreest told the French media: ‘I was quite furious at not being with my men.’

After the war, Mr Mylchreest served with the Royal Sussex Regiment in Italy, as well as in Malta, Egypt and the Dutch East Indies. Due to his love of horses, he was assigned to the 6th Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery, in Palestine, and later to the King’s Hussars (Cavalry).

He was also made a knight of the Legion of Honour, the highest order of merit in France, for his service during World War II.

After his service, David could not get the Normandy countryside out of his mind and in the 1970s, moved there where he would live the rest of his life.

Mr Mylchreest was a keen rider and trail hunter, going back to his youth in the Isle of Man.

His first post-military job was grooming at a thoroughbred and stud breeding farm. He even groomed some of the late Queen’s racehorses as well as working with some of the top trainers in the world.

Mr Mylchreest was the first British veteran to visit the British Normandy War Memorial when it opened in June 2021.

He died in a hospital in Lisieux, Normandy, last month.