D-Day cafe owner Arlette Gondree handed prestigious French honour

The owner of a historic cafe next to Pegasus Bridge, famous for her support for British D-Day veterans, has received a major honour from the French government.

Arlette Gondree, whose family was the first to be liberated by British soldiers in the early hours of D-Day in 1944, was named a Chevalier of the Order of Merit, one of the highest honours in France.

She was given the special medal in a ceremony outside the cafe in Benouville, Normandy, also attended by representatives of the British and French armed forces.

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Ms Gondree was just four when British soldiers liberated the family cafe.

British airborne forces landed next to Pegasus Bridge and captured it in a daring raid, hours before the main invasion of the nearby beaches.

The cafe was used as an aid station during the fierce battle that followed.

For many years she has hosted an annual service on the anniversary of D-Day to remember the British soldiers who died there.

After the ceremony at the weekend, she told Sky News: “It’s a very moving and touching award, a beautiful medal, and a very high honour from the French government.

“I think that the veterans themselves from the bottom of their hearts will be very pleased that the French government has recognised me for what I have done.”

Also in attendance was Margaret Brotheridge, daughter of Lieutenant Den Brotheridge, who was the first soldier to be killed in combat on D-Day when he stormed the bridge with men from the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, who landed near the bridge shortly after midnight on 6 June 1944.

The French government nominated Ms Gondree for the honour, saying she was being recognised for how she had made the cafe an emblem of the history of D-Day.

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She was handed the honour by the former president of the region of Lower Normandy, Laurent Beauvais.

More than 156,000 Allied soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day to begin the liberation of France from the Nazis.

They were confronted by around 50,000 Germans and 4,415 Allied troops were killed on the day itself.

In June, commemorations were held in France, the UK and across the world to mark the 80th anniversary of the invasion.

At a ceremony in Normandy, King Charles paid tribute to what he called that “remarkable wartime generation”.