A D-DAY veteran and community stalwart was sent France’s highest honour almost 18 months after his death.

Relatives of the late Phil Carey said he would have been overjoyed to receive the Legion d’honneur.

Phil, who died last year aged 92, was a lifelong Salvationist, a long-serving Bournemouth councillor and for 17 years the organiser of the Daily Echo Toy Appeal.

His family have been told they can keep the medal which was sent to his former home in Southbourne at the instruction of French president Francois Hollande.

Phil’s son Terry said: “We had a letter from the French embassy. I rang them and they apologised because they didn’t know he had died.”

He said Phil would have been thrilled at receiving the medal for his service on D-Day.

“It would have just been the finish for him. He would have been straight down to the Echo to show it off,” he said.

“I can imagine him at the front of the march on Remembrance Sunday, pinned on his Salvation Army uniform as he was marching through the town.”

Phil would have been able to add the Legion d’honneur to other honours, including the MBE he received from the Queen for his charity work.

Phil, then 22, was with the Royal 2nd Tactical Air Force when he crossed the channel with hundreds of US Army soldiers to land on Utah Beach on D-Day.

In the run-up to the 70th anniversary of D-Day, he recalled his thoughts at the time.

“There was the thought of ‘Is this the last time we’ll see England?’, ‘Are we going to come back here?’, ‘What’s going to happen to us?’,” he said.

“As a religious person, I thought, well, I didn’t want to go and see my maker too quickly.

“We wondered, would we reach the beaches? Many of the ships were fired on as we went across to the beach.”

Phil’s letter from ambassador Sylvie Bermann says: “As we contemplate this Europe of peace, we must never forget the heroes like you, who came from Britain and the Commonwealth to begin the liberation of Europe by liberating France. We owe our freedom and security to your dedication, because you were ready to risk your life.”