A Second World War veteran died just weeks after dealing with the guilt of not getting his feet wet in the Normandy landings.

Private Roy ‘Smudger’ Smith, from Sittingbourne, served with the 4th Battalion, The Dorsetshire Regiment, and went over to France on a landing craft shortly after D-Day in June 1944.

Born on November 28, 1925, he was a Bren gunner. After moving through Normandy and into the Netherlands he was captured and was a prisoner of war for approximately six months and weighed less than seven stone when he was freed.

After medics had deemed him fit enough, he was flown home in a Lancaster bomber to recuperate before being flown back to Germany to serve with the occupational forces for approximately one year.

From a poor family, Roy, the second youngest of seven children, left school at 14 to start a job in a grocery store called Pearks Dairies, making deliveries to customers on a bicycle until he was called up shortly after his 18th birthday.

After the war, Roy returned to his former employer, now called Liptons, working his way up to store manager and stayed with the company until his retirement.

The great-grandad met wife Sylvia at a bus stop when she asked him the time. It was love at first sight and they married in 1954. Sylvia died in 2011.

This May, Roy travelled to the Netherlands for Dutch Liberation Day, which marks the end of the German occupation, and Normandy in June for the D-Day commemorations.

Both visits were organised by the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans, a group which aims to help ex-service personnel by providing entertainment, outings and disability equipment.

His driver both times was London cabbie Micky Harris.

A special bond formed between the veteran and the volunteer and on the final day of the trip in June, Micky decided he would take Roy onto Sword beach, to put to bed a regret Smudger had carried with him since 1944.

Roy felt guilty because, unlike the men who had to clamber ashore through the waves during the D-Day landings, his craft landed later and could go up onto the beach due to the area being less crowded. This meant he could alight onto dry land.

Micky said: “Roy had shared that he had always felt guilty that he had not got his feet wet when his landing craft had reached Sword Beach a few days after D-Day.

“On the final day of our trip, we were visiting Sword Beach, so I decided to see what I could do and dragged Roy’s wheelchair down the beach and into the water’s edge.

“Some 79 years later Roy finally got his feet wet and the guilt he had previously felt seemed to lift.”

Roy, who died in hospital aged 97 on June 23, had two daughters, five grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Grandson Phil Harvey said: “My family cannot thank the Taxi Charity enough for what they did for my grandfather, he truly found peace through their kind actions.

“Stand easy soldier – your duty is done...”

“When he came back from the trip to Normandy, I truly saw a difference, the ghosts had been laid to rest and that was down to the charity’s actions.”

Brian Heffernan, chairman of the Taxi Charity, said: “We were deeply saddened to hear the news of Roy’s passing so soon after we returned from Normandy. Stand easy soldier – your duty is done.”

His funeral was held on July 18 in Bobbing.