THE son and daughter of a Watchet man who died on the Normandy beaches were special guests at a service at the town’s war memorial last Thursday to mark the 75th anniversary of Operation Overlord and the D-Day Landings.

Philip Webber and his sister Myral Cridland were remembering their father, Arthur Thomas Webber, a 33-year-old Royal Marine naval gunner, who was killed in action on August 17, 1944, during the Mulberry Harbour operation.

Arthur Webber was born in 1911 in Carhampton but later lived in Watchet and worked at the paper mill. He is buried at the La Delivrande war cemetery at Douvres, France.

Judi Hall, of Watchet Sea Scouts, whose father was in the D-Day Landings, brought to the service a tin of sand taken from Arromanches Beach in Normandy, scene of heavy fighting.

Mrs Hall’s husband, Gary, is a Royal British Legion standard-bearer.