Ronald Butcher, from Thetford, gave an interview in the national press earlier this year in which he spoke about the horrors he had seen in the Second World War and how countries needed to avoid a future conflict.

The former Merchant Navy sailor said: “We must learn from the past and be peacemakers. Keep telling your children. Get it in their little heads what happened.”

Ronald Butcher while serving in the Merchant Navy(Image: Supplied by family)

Mr Butcher began his war efforts in 1940 at the age of 12 when he assisted his father in the Local Defence Volunteers, a group which later became the Home Guard.

He quickly became very proficient and regarded as a marksman.

A year or so later, once he had left school, he began working on his uncle's minesweeper, operating out of Lowestoft.

He recalled being lowered from the vessel with a rope around his waist and a spanner tied to his wrist, so he could clamber on to a 'pin mine' to defuse it.

He was chosen for the task because he was the lightest member of the crew.

It was lethal work. His uncle cousin were later blown to........

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