Hon OF receives Legion d’Honneur in College chapel celebration

Steve McDowell (G82-86) has provided the following report:

Dougie Cracknell (Hon OF) was just 18 when he set foot on the Normandy beaches straight into the thick of the action to liberate France.

He did not expect to live to see his 21^st birthday.

Like so many of his generation, Dougie Cracknell rarely talked about his experiences during the Second World War, even as he was yesterday made a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur for his exploits in Normandy.

He was awarded his medal by the French Military Attache to the UK, Colonel Henri Leinekugel in the chapel at the College on April 14.

‘Dougie’, 99, of Cransford near Framlingham, had worked in the College kitchens as a server and cleaner after leaving school at just 14 years of age. It is for this reason he was made an Honorary OF last year.

He recalls the College being bombed by a stray Luftwaffe bomber in 1941.

“It was a Sunday afternoon. We ran for the shelter which was at the end of a playing field carrying trays of cutlery. There were knives and forks flying all over the place. I think the pilot must have been lost.”

The College was evacuated to Repton in Derbyshire putting Dougie out of a job. He then worked as an agricultural engineer until he was called up.

“I could have refused because it was a reserved occupation,” he says, “But that didn’t seem right with everyone else going off to the war.”

With almost no additional training other than the basic he received as a teenaged member of the Home Guard, he found himself on the beaches of war-ravaged Normandy two weeks after D-Day.

Coming ashore via the famous Mulberry harbour at Arromanches as a rifleman in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, he rapidly became involved in heavy fighting. Three days after landing, his first contact in late June 1944 at Bayeux saw 20 of his comrades killed including the commanding officer.

In almost continuous action for the following weeks, Dougie fought with his battalion taking heavy casualties through France, Belgium and in September was defending Nijmegen Bridge until armoured columns could cross the Rhine during the ill-fated Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands.

He was wounded twice – once with a German bullet that struck his weapon and shattered into his face.

Latterly deployed as a dispatch rider in Germany after the war, he did not return home to Cransford until he was demobbed in 1948. He worked as a lorry driver and transport manager until his retirement in his mid 70s.

Asked if he had experienced any problems on his return to civilian life, he laughed: “Yes, I got pulled over by the police in the Buttermarket in Ipswich for driving on the wrong side of the road.”

Widowed in 2020, Dougie was represented at the ceremony by his daughter, Jenny, grand-daughters Vicky and Sally, great-grandsons Fin and Harry, their families, and friends from the village.

Also attending was Lt Col (Rtd) Andrew Trelawny representing The Rifles whose father had served as an officer in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, and Jason Tietjen whose grandfather was killed in the notorious battle for Hill 112, an action in which Dougie took part.

The Legion d’Honneur is France’s highest civil award and as a D-Day veteran Dougie is among august company.

Fellow Britons who have received the award range from Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, late actors Sir John Guilgud and Sir Sean Connery to Sir Elton John.

Rev Brynn Baymann, Framlingham College chaplain who led the ceremony, said: “It is not very often we are able to celebrate the presentation of a medal of this stature in this chapel, where the average age is normally 15. It is a deep honour to be here for Doug’s award.”

In his address, Col Leinekugel said: “It is important for us to honour these veterans who fought so hard for the freedom of France and for all of us. It is my great pleasure to honour Douglas in recognition of the courage shown by him and his comrades 80 years ago.”

Lt Col Martin Myers-Allen (Hon OF), said: “Dougie did his bit. He served his country with courage and distinction. Last year he received an OF tie. A great honour but today, Dougie received something even greater.  Presented with the Légion d’Honneur—France’s highest and most prestigious order of merit—for his service during the D-Day landings.

“It is only fitting that we gather here in Chapel, in front of our WWI and WWII memorials on the West Wall. Here, we continue to remember the masters, staff, and old boys who made the ultimate sacrifice. Here, in the 1940s, from this very pulpit, the Headmaster would once recount stories of Old Framlinghamians at war—of bravery, of medals won… and of the fallen.

“If the ghosts of the past could join us today, I’ve no doubt they would be proud of Dougie Cracknell.”

“It really is so overwhelming,”  said Dougie, “I just did what I thought we had to do, like so many others. I never thought I would be here, in this place receiving this medal. I didn’t think I’d live to see 21.”

In recognition of this honour, he had been added to the Distinguished OF Section.