Family and friends in final salute to D-Day hero who survived blazing tank
Published: February 7, 2007
Sehffield bade a sad farewell to one of the city’s bravest war heroes at the funeral of Normandy veteran Bob Dare.
Bob’s tearful widow Doreen, his son Neil, daughter Janice and five grandchildren joined his fellow war heroes among 150 mourners paying their last respects at St Mark’s Church, High Street, Mosborough, yesterday.
Two fellow war veterans carried British Legion flags ahead of the coffin, which was draped in the Union Jack.
Bob, aged 82, of Ash Street, Mosborough, died of a brain haemorrhage at the Royal Hallamshire.
He had been a member of the Coldstream Guards Tank Brigade and took part in the D-Day landings in France, and operations to free Holland from Nazi rule.
In October 1944, aged just 20, he suffered severe burns when his Churchill tank was blown up by a mine at Overloon, Holland, during Operation Market Garden. Two of the crew of five were killed.
Bob was guest of honour at last year’s official opening of the Oorlogs National War and Resistance Museum in Overloon where the shell of his tank is on display.
At the time he was believed to be the only surviving British serviceman who had a personal connection to any of the exhibitions.
Bob was buried at Eckington cemetery.
Doreen, aged 83, was Bob’s wartime sweetheart.
The couple had celebrated their Diamond wedding anniversary in March last year.
Doreen said Bob aws a “marvellous husband and a great father and grandfather.”
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