A NORMANDY veteran whose combat medals went missing has been given a set of replacements by the Royal Navy.
Boyd Salmon is among the last survivors of a small, elite team who cleared mines, unexploded bombs, and other ordnance during the Second World War.
Boyd, 100, of Lymington, joined the navy at the age of 17 and served on convoy duties before being commissioned as a junior officer.
Without knowing what the acronym stood for, he volunteered for "shore-based RMS work", thinking that serving ashore would be better than being thrown around at sea.
When he arrived at HMS Vernon in Portsmouth he discovered that RMS stood for Render Mines Safe.
He and his comrades were tasked with not only disabling standard German and Italian mines but seeking out new designs to disarm so they could pass on their knowledge to other bomb disposal experts.
The beaches of Normandy were littered with mines, booby traps, and other deadly devices that aimed to hinder the D-Day invasion.
Boyd and his team were sent to Sword Beach in the immediate aftermath of the landings to neutralise unexploded ordnance.
Later in the war he was clearing a Dutch beach as part of an all-out effort to aid the Allied drive into the heart of Nazi Germany.
He started approaching a large shell or mine and was only about 20 metres from the device when it exploded with a deafening "whoosh".
The last thing he remembered before passing out was a fellow sailor telling him a piece of shrapnel was embedded in his stomach.
It was subsequently removed but Boyd was invalided out of the service. His injury resulted in years of treatment and recovery, but he fell for one of his physiotherapists and married her two years later.
After 75 years his wartime exploits were uncovered by former navy diver Ginge Fullen, who tracked him down while researching a book.
It led to him and his family being invited to Portsmouth to meet the modern day equivalents of Boyd and his team.
A navy spokesperson said: "In the eight decades since Boyd served, the family at some stage misplaced the medals he earned for his wartime service.
"That was put right by the divers, who handed over a series of replicas in a presentation case to Boyd and his daughter Nicola."
During the ceremony Boyd was described by a senior officer as a "genuine living hero".
As reported in the Daily Echo, he celebrated his 100th birthday earlier this year with a 40-minute helicopter flight over the Solent.
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