EVACUATED to Bude when he was just 13, Mr George McAucliffe, now in his 90s, has received France’s highest military award for his service during the war.

Mr George McAuliffe was born in Battersea, London, in 1926. He was evacuated to Bude during the Second World War and then joined the Royal Navy at the young age of 17.

He recently received the Légion d’Honneur medal at a special ceremony in Adelaide, Australia.

During the Second World War Mr McAuliffe was evacuated to Cornwall’s Widemouth Bay from Battersea in London, after his family home was bombed out.

After the family house was bombed in 1939, George, only 13 years old at the time, was moved to the Bude area along with his mother and siblings — the family remained after the war as they had come to see Cornwall as their home, and Mr McAuliffe later moved to Australia in the 1960s.

Lying about his age, the young George enlisted to the Royal Navy in Exeter, aged 17. Not long after his enlistment, Mr McAuliffe was transferred to the Royal Navy Commandos.

Speaking to a family member, Charles Ronald, Mr McAuliffe’s brother-in-law, told the Post: “George, being a somewhat typical teenager, wanted excitement, so lying about his age he enlisted into the Royal Navy. It wasn’t long before he was transferred for training as a Naval Commando where he gave exceptional service, which has now been recognised and he has been awarded with the L’egion d’Honeur medal from the French government.”

During the war Mr McAuliffe served on Juno Beach during the D-Day landings. It was here, along with his unit, where he remained for six weeks before returning home to regroup for further landings.

Speaking about the D-Day landings, Mr McAuliffe recalls it being ‘very dark and the sea very rough when we got to shore; we were faced with heavy gunfire, but we survived.’

He mentioned that ‘there was gunfire both ways from inland and behind with us caught between. We didn’t lose many, because there weren’t too many of us at the time.’

It is for the exceptional service he gave during the war that, now in his 90s, Mr McAuliffe was recently awarded his Légion d’Honneur medal.

Mr McAuliffe was presented with the Légion d’Honneur by Ambassador Christophe Le Courtier on behalf of the French President Francois Hollander at the Adelaide Town Hall, in Australia, where Mr McAuliffe currently lives.

Mr LeCourtier said: “Their names will find their way in the Pantheon among those that deserve the utmost respect from our nation.

“It is a way to remember what the United Kingdom has been able to do for my country, a country that twice in a generation became the ultimate battlefield, where two different ideas of mankind and also the power and glory, were struggling against each other.

“It is a way to express once again as loudly as possible, how grateful France is for the sacrifice of these young men and women.”

Mr Ronald, told the Post: “The award was presented to him at his now home town of Adelaide, Australia, where he has lived for the past 50 years.

“I am sure there are still many of his friends in and around Bude who will remember him. He’s a pretty brave guy.”