BBCA 103-year-old veteran has received his medals 80 years after leaving the Royal Air Force.
Basil Smith, from Upper Tumble, Carmarthenshire, served during World War Two but never received his medals for his years of service.
He was presented with a war medal and a defence medal in his hometown on Monday.
Basil said he did not do it for the medals, adding: “I wasn’t concerned about having any of them.”
In Bethania Chapel vestry, Upper Tumble, the Lord Lieutenant of Dyfed, Sara Edwards, presented Basil with his medals – nearly 80 years after he left the RAF.
Basil received a message from King Charles, thanking him for his service.
This, he said, was “a big surprise”.
Addressing those at the chapel ceremony he said he “never expected such a service”.
Basil talked about his time serving in Iraq and travelling the Middle East.
“We were stationed about 60 miles out in the dessert. I would fly as often as I could form Baghdad to Cairo carrying equipment and so forth.”
A keen tennis player, he would always try to squeeze a game in.
“I would play at six o’clock in the morning, by eight o’clock it was over 80 degrees, and you couldn’t play,” he said.
Lyndon Davies, Basil’s neighbour and fellow veteran, said Basil did not want a lot of fuss at the start.
He said: “He was happy to get them through the post and have someone present them quietly to him in the house.
“But I thought he deserves something better than that after waiting for so long.”
Basil served in the Royal Air Force as a Sergeant from 1941 to1946 and was stationed overseas in Iraq from 1943 until 1945.
When Lyndon discovered Basil had never received his medals, he contacted the medals office on his behalf.
Lyndon, who served in the armed forces from 2011 to 2022, said it was important for veterans to receive their medals.
He said: “Especially for those who served in the Second World War, I have a lot of respect for them. If it wasn’t for them our lives would look a lot different to what they are now.”
Until last year, Basil played tennis in Swansea twice a week.
Lyndon added: “Considering Mr Smith’s incredible mature years, it is amazing that he will now receive the medals he so rightly deserves for his wartime service to our country.”
