A British war veteran who left his care home to attend last year's 70th anniversary D-Day events in France has died - months before he hoped to return to Normandy's beaches.
Bernard Jordan - dubbed the Great Escaper after his cross-Channel adventure last June - died peacefully in hospital at the age of 90.
He was taken to the hearts of many when he disappeared from his care home to embark on a trip to the D-Day anniversary commemorations in Normandy wearing his war medals under his grey mac.
His disappearance sparked a police search last June 5 and his whereabouts only emerged when a younger veteran phoned later that night to say he had met Mr Jordan and he was safe.
Mr Jordan, an ex-Royal Navy veteran and mayor of Hove in East Sussex, told reporters on his return that his aim was to remember his fallen "mates".
He had decided to join British veterans, most making their final pilgrimage to revisit the scene of their momentous invasion, to remember the heroes of the liberation of Europe.
Some 156,000 allied troops landed on the five invasion beaches on June 6, 1944, sparking an 80-day campaign to liberate Normandy involving three million troops and costing 250,000 lives.
Mr Jordan had hoped to make a return visit to Normandy this June.
But his death, announced in a statement by Gracewell Healthcare, which runs The Pines care home in Hove, where Mr Jordan, known as Bernie, lived, has put paid to that.
The Royal British Legion said Mr Jordan's decision to go to France highlighted "the spirit that epitomises the Second World War generation".
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