A POWYS veteran has celebrated D-Day by finally getting his hands on a Long Service and Good Conduct medal – more than 40 years after he left the Armed Forces.

Tony Mann, who lives in Llandrindod Wells, served in the Royal Navy for 32 years, as both an aeroplane technician and later an instructor.

When he became an officer in the mid-1960s, he effectively forfeited his right to honours as they were not originally eligible to receive medals. However, that stance changed in 1980 and Tony has since been told he was eligible for the medal as of 1966, when he left his engineering role.

However, it took the diligence of wife Maureen, and a little help from Brecon & Radnorshire MP Fay Jones, to move things forward.

The Long Service and Good Conduct medal was finally delivered to Tony two weeks ago, just in time for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

Tony and wife Maureen; the couple met 5 years ago and married in January 2022. Credit Matt JonesTony and wife Maureen; the couple met 5 years ago and married in January 2022. (Image: Matt Jones)

“It feels wonderful,” said Tony, who turned 90 last month.

“With D-Day coming up and the hard work it’s taken to get this medal, it makes it a bit more special.

“They tell me I was eligible from November 1966. I joined the Royal Navy as an apprentice and then became a technician, mending aeroplanes.

“Later on I could see that the fleet air arm was packing up so I went to night school and got a HND in mechanical engineering and transferred to become an instructor.

“Back then, my Long Service and Good Conduct medal chances died once I became an officer.

"Then, they changed their minds in the 80s.”

Tony spent 32 years in the service in total, 16 as a sailor and 16 as a teacher, before retiring in 1982.

He added: “I did apply but it got lost or I forgot about it, and then Maureen got hold of Fay Jones and got it sorted. I received the medal two weeks ago.”

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D-Day’s 80th anniversary was marked on Thursday, June 6. And despite its link to World War II and so many lost lives, it invokes “happy memories” in Tony, who was a school pupil at the time and whose career was shaped by Allied forces' storming of the Normandy beaches.

“I enjoyed my service time,” said Tony, who was born Berkshire but spent his childhood in Cardiff.

“firstly as an apprentice, then I was then fixing aeroplanes in Cornwall and making them fly. Then I worked at a Glasgow airfield which is now Glasgow Airport.

“I went off then to help with leadership training and ran a mountain rescue team in Arbroath, which was when I transferred to being an instructor.

“I had been in a long time, so this medal is a nice way to bookend my time in the forces.

“I knew quite a few people who went across the channel. I was only in school and didn’t join the Navy until 1950 but I remember D-Day very well; coming home and mum had it on the radio, I was about 10.

“We were bombed out in Cardiff in 1943. It certainly helped influence my career choice.”

After leaving the Royal Navy a lieutenant commander, Tony briefly taught engineering in Glasgow, before making a totally different switch to the cloth, becoming a priest in Scotland, an area he had grown attached to.

Tony received his Long Service and Good Conduct medal two weeks ago - having found out he'd been eligible for one since 1966.Tony received his Long Service and Good Conduct medal two weeks ago - having found out he'd been eligible for one since 1966. (Image: Matt Jones)

He eventually heeded the plea of his family to move closer to them in the Midlands, settling in Llandrindod in 2007.

Both widows, he and Maureen met around five years ago and married in January 2022.

Although Maureen says Tony now has limited mobility and health issues, his tongue-in-cheek still shines.

He has recently written and published an A4 booklet of some of his early Royal Navy days, titled ‘Mann Made’.

As well as the booklet, Tony has previously turned his hand to drawing, painting and even crochet – which is how he and Maureen met.

“A female friend of mine met Maureen and Maureen asked her about this lovely scarf she was wearing,” he said.

“She told her a friend made it and Maureen asked would her female friend make her one. She told her it was a ‘he’ and that was how we were introduced.

“We started writing letters to each other and that went on for about nine months; now we’ve been married about two-and-half years.”