A VETERAN who served in the Second World War has been awarded the highest possible medal for bravery by the French president.

Leonard Sadler, 92, was greeted at his home in Southminster Residential Home on Sunday by members of the Royal British Legion and presented with the Legion d’Honneur.

It is the highest order the French President can give for bravery.

Mr Sadler was born in 1924 in London, moving to Dagenham in 1927. In August 1942 when he reached the age of 18, he received his call up papers and he was initially stationed in the Midlands before moving to the south coast where he was a gunner watching for planes.

In June 1944 he was part of the D-Day landings on the French beaches.

As part of the small units, he was on one of the concrete caissons that were towed across the channel then sunk off shore in Arromanches-les-Bains to form part of the Mulberry harbour. He remained in France and moved around Europe, later attached to military police until he was demobbed in 1947.

He returned to Dagenham after the war, and after marrying in 1949 he relocated to Basildon in 1964, when he retired soon after and moved to the Dengie.

He has three children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

Chris Harris, Leonard’s son, said: “My father is a brilliant man, he’ll turn 93 in August yet he still manages his own finances, gets up by himself and reads the paper every day and you can easily talk to him, despite being quite frail.

“When you get to his age, there isn’t a great deal left to look forward to, so being the centre of attention for the day and to be presented with such an honour made him very happy.”