A 101-year-old World War Two warrior who survived D-Day but claimed it “wasn’t worth it” due to the status of the nation passed away.
Alec Penstone, a resident of Shanklin, Isle of Wight, devoted his entire life to serving in the armed forces and being a patriot.
When the war started, he was only 15 years old, but he courageously enlisted as soon as he was old enough to fight.
During the Blitz, he helped rescue people from destroyed buildings as a volunteer air raid messenger.
After witnessing the atrocities of World War One, Mr. Penstone promised his father that he would not serve in the trenches, so he enlisted in the Navy in 1943.
Before serving with distinction in the Arctic Convoys to Russia aboard HMS Campania, he received training in submarine detection.
He was on board the same ship that was crucial to D-Day in June 1944, keeping a close eye out for torpedoes, mines, and U-boats.
At the age of 100, he became the nation’s oldest poppy vendor while still serving his nation and military purposes.
In the company of his loved ones, he passed away on Thursday at Mountbatten Hospice in Newport.
Alec Penstone, a D-Day hero and World War II veteran, passed away at the age of 101.
Mr. Penstone, shown here in 1945 at the age of 20, was a young man who served in the Royal Navy during World War Two.
When Mr. Penstone made an appearance on national television last year, he stunned the nation by claiming that the UK “has gone to rack and ruin” and that the sacrifice made by the lost men of his generation “wasn’t worth” what had happened to the nation decades later.
He told Good Morning Britain hosts Kate Garraway and Adil Ray, “What we fought for was our freedom, but now it’s a darn sight worse than when I fought for it.”
The veteran expressed his sadness and rage at what he perceives to be Britain’s collapse in an interview with the Daily Mail.
“I have no idea why we lost so many amazing men and what the hell we fought for.” The grandpa of two went on, “There are too many people with their fingers in the till. The country has gone to rack and ruin.” When he was younger, faith was the greatest thing in our nation.
“But there are too many people these days who just want their own little corner and bugger everyone else.”
Alec emphasizes that he is not opposed to foreigners entering the country as long as they behave themselves, rather than letting animosity drive his suffering.
The hosts were “mortified” by Mr. Penstone’s depressing remark regarding the status of the nation.
“I can see in my mind’s eye those rows and rows of white stones and all the hundreds of my friends who gave their lives, for what?” he said to the audience. The nation of today? “No, I apologize, but the outcome of what it is now wasn’t worth the sacrifice.”
He went on, “What we fought for was our freedom, but now it’s a darn sight worse than when I fought for it,” in response to a question about what he meant by Mr. Ray.
The veteran did not identify the causes of Britain’s collapse.
The veteran shocked millions last year when he declared that the sacrifice made during the conflict “was not worth it.”
Two members of the D-Day Darlings, a singing and dance ensemble with a wartime theme, kiss Mr. Penstone.
Alec (shown with Rod Stewart) proudly held the title of oldest poppy vendor in the nation, working until his death.
Despite having a distinguished military career, Mr. Penstone stated he wasn’t a hero and consistently maintained a wonderfully modest attitude regarding his service to the nation.
“The heroes are all the dead ones,” he said to the Daily Mail. The people we left behind on the beaches of Normandy and in the Arctic are the heroes.
Mr. Penstone was a proud Cockney who was born in the East End of London in 1925.
A week before Alec turned 14, in April 1939, his father passed away after suffering serious injuries from friendly fire during the First World War’s Battle of the Somme.
His mother was apprehensive about him serving on the front lines during the conflict because of his father’s experience.
He first enlisted in the Merchant Navy, saying, “I wanted deck hand, and all they would offer me was engine room.” I even offered to help out as a cook. “In the end, they said if you are so eager to go to sea, go to Edgware and join the real navy,” he added. “To my mother’s dismay, I did.” “Your father would turn in his grave if he knew what you were doing,” she remarked.
Alec was assigned to serve in submarines after completing his training in December 1943.
He later relocated to HMS Campania, an escort aircraft carrier. He participated in the Arctic Convoys to Russia aboard that ship.
The missions on board the ship were “hell on earth,” according to Mr. Penstone.
Winston Churchill acknowledged that the convoys that traveled near German-occupied Norway were among the most dangerous missions of the war.
He was awarded the Russian Ushakov bravery medal for his service in the Arctic.
Alec, however, declined to wear it since he was repulsed by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “The Russian people are marvellous,” he declared. Many of them were friends of mine. However, their leader is worse than an animal.
As part of the “D-Day” celebrations commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy during World War Two, Mr. Penstone was seen following a parade of UK veterans in Arromanches-les-Bains on June 6, 2024.
He was a member of HMS Campania, which led some of the most dangerous missions of the war—the Arctic Convoys to Russia.
In June 1944, the Campania was crucial to the D-Day landings in Normandy.
Mr. Penstone was on constant action station three decks down, keeping an ear out for mines, torpedoes, and U-boats.
He remembered seeing The Needles and The Solent “covered in ships” when anchored off the Isle of Wight prior to the invasion, a scene that signaled the scope of the upcoming operation.
Mr. Penstone usually minimized his own role. I was down on the action stations, so I don’t recall anything about D-Day. However, I could hear what was happening,” he remarked.
Unaware that the war was about to finish, he and HMS Campania returned to their duties in the Arctic after a week off the shore of Normandy and completed ten more voyages.
“Between convoys, we used to poke into all the Norwegian fjords, did what we called shipping strikes with the swordfish torpedo planes,” he told the British Legion. “We were off doing that, we had no inkling at all that the war was finishing.”
I couldn’t believe it until I heard about it on the radio and in the news. “In fact, it got a little naughty because somebody got the ship’s bell and was playing football with it on the flight deck, which didn’t go down very well with the skipper.”
He went back to the UK to be with his fiancée Gladys after VE Day. However, he was enlisted to aid in the ongoing war effort in the Far East, so his stay was brief.
Two days prior to Mr. Penstone’s return to service, on July 21, 1945, the pair tied the knot after obtaining a few further days of vacation.
“We got married on Saturday at 2 o’clock, and I said goodbye to her at 7 o’clock on Monday morning,” he recalled.
After the war, Mr. Penstone continued to service for an additional 14 months before being demobbed in September 1946.
For his efforts on D-Day, he received the Legion of Honour, the highest and most esteemed French national decoration of merit.
Alec and Gladys first shared a flat in Tottenham with her parents following the war.
Jacqueline, their daughter, was born in 1962.
Before relocating his family to Stanmore in Middlesex and eventually Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, Mr. Penstone worked as an electrician and briefly operated his own company.
In 1989, they moved to Burton-on-Trent, where they lived for 20 years.
Alec and Gladys then made the Isle of Wight their home in 2009.
On their 70th wedding anniversary in 2015, Mr. Penstone was photographed with his late wife Gladys.
On July 21, 1945, Alec and his bride Gladys were photographed with their loved ones and friends on their wedding day.
The veteran at a D-Day commemoration in 2024 with Akshata Murty, the wife of Rishi Sunak
They spent their retirement as a pair speaking at schools about their experiences during the war.
His cherished wife passed away in March 2022 at the age of 96. Only a few months before their 77th wedding anniversary, she passed away.
She was his lifelong dancing partner and soulmate, according to Mr. Penstone.
He described her ashes resting on the mantelpiece of his home, where he continued to live independently despite being blind, in an interview with The Mail last year.
She approaches me at night and asks, “When are you coming to join me?” he asked.
“Not yet, love,” I say. I apologize.
He said, “We always had an agreement we would never go to sleep on an argument,” revealing the key to their successful marriage. Humble pie would always be consumed by one or both of us.
He was one of the veterans that traveled back to Normandy in 2024 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France.
He first met King Charles and Queen Camilla in France.
Mr. Penstone claimed that before he turned 100, King Charles advised him “not to do anything silly” after seeing the late Queen Elizabeth II several times.
“I’m so lucky,” he continued. I have no idea why I’ve been spared. I never thought I would be 21, much less 100. The devil takes care of his own, so the saying goes.
Mr. Penstone continued to be an ardent supporter of remembering and participated on multiple times in the march of veterans that serves as the focal point of the annual remembering Sunday service at the London monument.
His autobiography, My Ten and a Half Arctic Convoys: and my Life and Times, told his story.
His recollections of D-Day and the Arctic Convoys were still fresh, and he continued to pay tribute to those who never came back, even after nearly losing his sight.
