At 96, Nova Scotia veteran Roy Rushton has many medals and memories of war. Now, he has added the French Legion of Honour to his collection.
Rushton joined the Canadian military in 1942. Within a year, he received his first war medal for volunteer service.
Seven decades later, Rushton is a decorated war hero who fought in both the Second World War and the Korean War.
He was also one of the first Canadian paratroopers to land on the battlefields of Normandy.
“The fifth of June is when we loaded up. We landed in France several hours before the seaboard forces landed on the beaches and we…lost quite a few men,” says Rushton.
Rushton and his battalion dropped behind German enemy lines to secure territory so the western allied invasion could take place.
“It was the sacrifices made by the Canadian soldiers that helped France free herself from the Nazi domination,” says French Consul-General Vincent Hommeril.
Rushton received the French of Legion in his hometown of Pictou, N.S. on Thursday. It is the highest honour offered by France.
Hommeril pinned the medal on Rushton. He lives in Moncton, but is originally from Normandy.
“After all these years the French government wanted to thank him and also being from Normandy, I am also personally very moved by what he did,” says Hommeril.
“To me it is a great honour,” says Rushton. “I really have to thank the French government for doing it and it’s a great honour to me because it’s an official medal.”
With files from CTV Atlantic's Kelland Sundahl
