'Give Len the send off he deserves' - call to Sussex servicemen to attend funeral of armed forces veteran, 95

Charles Leonard Moore, affectionately known as ‘Len’, was a regular at Bognor Regis cafe Charlie Charlie 1 where he was well known amongst staff for his cheeky sense of humour and ‘huge smile’.

"He was incredibly brash, very loud and hard to keep down,” said Charlie Charlie 1 manager Matt Cole. “Even after his fall, he was back in the coffee shop the next day, covered in bruises and trying to chat up the ladies.”

When he died earlier this month, it became clear that, although the 95-year-old had already paid for his funeral, it wasn’t clear who was going to run it – or if anyone would be there at all. Mr Cole said the veteran, who had once served as a light infantryman, had no immediately contactable family, and seemed to be on his own.

A fixture at Charlie Charlie 1, and at Veterans Breakfast Clubs all over Bognor, news of Lens death hit the community hard, and Mr Cole said he wasn’t going to let Len go without a proper goodbye: "He might not have had any blood family around, but he was part of the closest knit-family in the country – and that’s the veterans community,” he said.

Eager to get the biggest turnout possible, the team at Charlie Charlie 1, supported by colleagues at nearby Crimsham Farm, have been in touch with veterans groups all over the country to arrange a presence at Len’s funeral – with a bugle player and standard bearers already in tow.

Representatives from Charlie Charlie 1, veterans breakfast clubs, Crimsham Farm, and local chapters of the Royal British Legion are already set to be there, but Mr Cole said he’d like to see as many veterans as possible at Len’s funeral.

"It’s always hard when we lose one the vets,” Mr Cole said. “But this hit particularly hard – no one had a bad word to say about Len. And he was one of the oldest veterans we had, and that’s always especially hard.”

Len’s funeral will at the Arun Crematorium, 11am, on June 27. Veterans have been asked to arrive at 10.30, dressed as though for Remembrance Day.