Shropshire Star

Tributes are paid to WWII veteran from Newport

Tributes have been paid to one of Newport's oldest war veterans, who has died aged 92.

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Harry Whitehouse, ijncluding, left, in his service days

Harry Whitehouse, who served towards the end of the Second World War, died on April 7 at Brookfield House Nursing Home.

Mr Whitehouse served in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers and was posted overseas 10 days after D-Day in June 1944.

His job was to rescue broken down vehicles and drive troops from the front line.

In his notes on his time in the forces, Mr Whitehouse recalled being in Arromanches, sat in a hole as mortars landed all around him constantly for two weeks.

He spent Christmas with a civilian family in Maastricht, giving away his rations of sardines, biscuits and sugar, before heading to Eindhoven.

Mr Whitehouse then remembered the relief at seeing the sky "black with planes" during Operation Market Garden, the largest airborne operation up to that time.

When he left the forces Mr Whitehouse was reunited with his wife Mary and began an engineering job at Babcock & Wilcox in Tipton before a four year spell in Canada and America.

He settled in Meadow View Road in Newport and retired at 60, but he remained active in old age. Mr Whitehouse took a job monitoring trolleys at Somerfield in Newport and was a regular at St Peter and Paul's Catholic Church.

He was also a member of the town's Rainbow Club and The Navy Club.

His son, Paul Whitehouse, said: "He loved a joke. I used to pick him up and take him to the Legion and he'd come up with anecdotes."

Mr Whitehouse, who was widowed in 2000, was also a keen dancer and musician.

Daughter-in-law Dot Whitehouse said: "He loved music. They'd put music on and he and Mary would be dancing around the lounge."

In later life he could be found travelling around the town on his mobility scooter.

Mrs Whitehouse said: "They'd call him Evel Knievel because he'd be going 12mph."

Mr Whitehouse had three children, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

His funeral will be at 2.45pm on Monday at St Peter and Paul's Catholic Church in Newport.

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