West Sussex World War II veteran to receive medal in Chichester

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

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 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.

Speaking about the occasion coming up, Tom said: “The phone has been going mad. I am excited, I didn’t know what was happening. As far as I was concerned, I didn’t have a record with them… I was a LAC (Leading Aircraftmen) and was flying from Sillon (France) to the Dutch East Indies and thoroughly enjoying it.

“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 ambulances officer before founding the Manhood Mobility Volunteer Service in East Wittering.