One of the last surviving veterans from the raid on the French port of St Nazaire during World War Two will be in Falmouth this weekend for the annual commemorative service.

Bill Bannister, who is 95, attended last year’s memorial service on the Prince of Wales Pier and despite his age, he insisted on joining the parade and walking down to the Watersports Centre for the civic reception.

On Sunday (March 24), he will form part of the parade that will leave The Moor at 10.45am. Led by the RNAS Culdrose band and featuring members of the Royal British Legion’s Cornish Riders’ branch, the parade will make its way to the St Nazaire Memorial on the pier for the 11am service.

As well as commemorating the 71st anniversary of the raid on St Nazaire, the service will also refer to the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic. It will again be followed by a reception at the Watersports Centre.

In 2008, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall came to Falmouth to attend the rededication of the St Nazaire memorial after a new one was created on the pier, from where 622 sailors and commandos had left for France in March 1942. Tragically, 168 did not return.

The ageing destroyer, HMS Campbeltown had been packed with explosives and disguised as a German frigate. Accompanied by 16 launches and two destroyers, she made her way to St Nazaire, a stronghold of the Germans, where she was steered into the dock gate and scuttled.