A WELCOME party of civic dignitaries and veterans greeted ex-soldier Doug Hamilton-Cox in Royal Wootton Bassett at the end of a 130-mile yomp from Devon that has raised thousands of pounds for wounded servicemen and women.

He arrived at the war memorial at noon on Monday with an escort of flagbearers from his old regiment and was presented with a commemorative medal by mayor and fellow ex-serviceman Ian Ferries.

The 71-year-old’s travels over the past five years to John O’Groats and Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham among others, have taken him more than 4,000 miles and raised more than £100,000 for Help for Heroes.

He was overwhelmed by the welcome he received all over the country. “The number of veterans that come up to you and put their arms around you,” he said. “Everywhere you go you get enormous help.

In Coventry a young girl put money in the collecting bucket explaining her father had been a soldier and was killed.

Doug, who joined as a boy soldier and did his apprenticeship with the Royal Engineers before embarking on a career that took him to far flung places, was a regular visitor to the town during the repatriations.

He often made the trip up from his home in Bridford, Devon with his wife and family to stand at the roadside and pay his respects to the fallen as they were carried on their way from RAF Lyneham to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

It was a throwaway comment from a fellow bystander that triggered his ambition to raise money for wounded servicemen and women by walking from his home to Wootton Bassett.

“There was an elderly couple that we used to meet and have a cup of tea with. They kept taking about how I’d come all the way from Devon and what a commitment it was, but it was just a drive.

“On the way back one day I said: ‘I’m not having that any more, I’m going to walk up there.”

It was the first of several long distance yomps, including Devon to Selly Oak Hospital where the injured from Afghanistan and Iraq were treated.

Mayor Ian Ferries, who served in the RAF at Lyneham, praised Doug’s tremendous effort. He said: “Anyone who has got the tenacity to stay with it and stay with the charity is just amazing.”

He told how his nephew was seriously injured in Afghanistan but had been helped by Help for Heroes.

It was one of the reasons he had chosen to support the charity during his year as mayor, raising in the region of £5,000. “It is a charity that is very close to my heart,” he said.