West Sussex World War II veteran receives medal in Chichester

The Thank You Liberators medal was presented to 98-year-old Tom Jones by a representative of the Netherlands, at Chichester Yacht Club on Friday, October 11.

Tom received the medal from Captain Rick Ongering Defence and Navel Attaché at The

Embassy of The Kingdom of The Netherlands in London.

After losing most of his squadron in an operation code-named Thursday in March of 1944,

Tom was sent from North India to Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

Travelling for about three weeks mostly on cattle trucks via India’s rail network, Tom finally reached the coast and alighted a small ship for the final journey to Ceylon.

In Ceylon, Tom Joined a squadron of Short Sunderland flying boats and was promoted to LAC (Leading aircraftman).

The medal was introduced in 2000 and is seen as a token of gratitude towards veterans who served in the Netherlands during the Second World War and helped liberate their country.

Tom’s post also involved maintaining the Sunderland flying boat patrol bomber during the long flights to The Dutch East Indies (Jakarta, Indonesia) and repatriating the Dutch people. During the outbound flights the “Skipper” would instruct Tom to fly the “old tub”, and on the return flights, packed with mostly civilians, Tom would hand out sandwiches and serve hot drinks.

“I’ve just done my job, done what I was told and here I am. Some of the memories were marvellous, and some of them were absolutely wicked. War in my opinion is wicked in any way you look at it. I know so many of my friends that I went in with that were dead and buried a long time before got back out to work.”

Tom moved to Birdham to enjoy sailing his Ketch sailing boat named ‘Vincere’ and help the local community.

He joined The Red Cross as a voluntary ambulance officer before founding the Manhood Mobility Volunteer Service in East Wittering.