D-Day veteran Ken Cooke to receive Freedom of City

York's last surviving Normandy veteran is set to be awarded the Freedom of the City.

Ken Cooke, now aged 100, was 18 when he took part in the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944.

An extraordinary meeting of City of York Council on 16 July is expected to vote unanimously to award him the highest honour the authority can bestow.

Conservative councillor Martin Rowley, who nominated Cooke, said: "In recognition of all that he's done, not just in his wartime service but everything he's done for veterans' affairs and welfare - and remembrance of the Second World War here in York - we think it's only fitting that he is awarded the Freedom of the City."

"Ken is one of York's living treasures," Rowley added.

"I'm surprised that this was not bestowed on him beforehand."

Ever since his military service, Cooke has taken part in remembrance events and delivered talks to schools and community groups, in the hope the sacrifice made by his generation is never forgotten.

About 11,000 British troops were killed and 54,000 more were wounded on 6 June 1944.

Rowley, who is himself a veteran and chair of the Royal British Legion's York branch, said Cooke was the "very last of the living history" in York, and an important figure for the city and military veterans.

"To have someone's first-hand experience is very different from reading it in a textbook."

Cooke has previously spoken of how he was dropped into about 6in (15cm) of sea water and all he remembered was how wet his socks felt.

The troops were then told to move off the beaches and into the surrounding countryside as quickly as possible.

"The sergeant and the corporal were shouting to get off the beach as quickly as you can, if anybody falls down, gets shot off and falls down, leave them and you get off the beach. The medics will take care of those people," he told the BBC in 2024.

On 4 July 1944, he was badly wounded by a mortar bomb while on patrol and was sent home to recover.

Rowley said the Freedom of the City was a rare civic award, which must be voted on by the entire council.

"In my seven years as a councillor, I have only seen three freedoms given."

The meeting was likely to be busy, he added, with Cooke due to attend with family and friends alongside other guests.

He encouraged members of the public to attend and sit in the public gallery for what was likely to be a "very moving meeting and also a very moving ceremony afterwards".

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