A veteran World War Two captain from Shrivenham who “cheated death twice on the same day” has died aged 102.

Ron Johnson was called up to fight in September 1939 and as the only grammar schoolboy in his group, he was sent on many courses during training.

Scoring 100 per cent on an aircraft recognition course, he was fast-tracked to glider pilot training in readiness for D-Day.

Not required for D-Day in June 1944, Ron instead flew into the Arnhem and Oosterbeek area in September 1944 in a Horsa carrying a jeep, two trailers and four engineers.

Swindon Advertiser: Ron Johnson died at his home in November 2023.Ron Johnson died at his home in November 2023. (Image: Ron Johnson)

While in the Netherlands, Ron miraculously cheated death twice on the same day.

This included when a mortar bomb exploded in the trench next to him leaving those in the trench dead and his head and face bleeding.

Then some hours later after he had been bandaged and returned to the trench, he stood up, intending to check for signs of life in the adjacent trench and was shot in the back by a sniper.

The bullet exited through his right arm – so he was sent back to the dressing station again where he joined many other wounded men at the Tafelberg Hotel, before being taken to Apeldoorn Barracks by the Germans as a prisoner of war a couple of days later.

He spent three nights locked in a cattle truck on the route to Fallingbostel and after three days, six Glider Pilot officers were taken by armed guard on a train via Hanover to Spangenberg Castle in Germany.

Ron was held there from September 1944 to April 1945 as the Germans began moving the prisoners eastwards towards the Russians and Ron and his friend Bob Garnett seized the opportunity to escape.

Swindon Advertiser: Ron, front centre right, during his military days.Ron, front centre right, during his military days. (Image: Ron Johnson)

The pair spent five days in the hills living on a few biscuits and rain water before the advancing Americans got them to Paris.

As soon as he arrived home he put on his uniform and headed to Buckingham Palace to celebrate VE Day.

Ron stayed in the Army and in 1946, while serving near Harrogate he met Sybil at a dance he had organised. 

Sybil seized the opportunity to dance with Ron during a ‘Ladies Excuse Me’ and they married in March 1947, moving to Salisbury, where their daughters Valerie and Diane were born in 1949 and 1951.

Ron left the army in 1953 to join Kalamazoo Office Systems at Southampton and then Oxford.

He later lived in Vienna in Austria and Dijon in France for Ron’s job before they returned to England in 1974 to live at Tylers Green in Buckinghamshire before eventually retiring at 65.

In 2008 Ron and Sybil moved to Shrivenham to be near their daughters, so that they had support in their old age.

On Thursday, November 16, 2023, Ron died at his home.

Dick Goodwin, Honorary Secretary, Taxi Charity for Military Veterans said, “Ron was a wonderful character, the like of which we will never see again.

“On a Taxi Charity trip to Normandy in 2017, Ron took part in a question and answer session with local students.

“The questions were inevitably quite emotional and Ron simply told the room of young and old to 'love one another'.

“The room fell silent and I will never forget what he said and I doubt the students will either.

“Ron’s words ‘WE ARE FREE AND WE LOVE ONE ANOTHER’ are inscribed on the Glider Pilot Memorial at Wolfheze.”

Diane predeceased Ron, as did his wife Sybil so Valerie will be holding a private funeral for her father and she plans to hold a memorial service in 2024.