Stanley Tooze, WW2 Paratrooper from Taunton, has died

Stanley Howard Tooze and his identical twin Edwin were born in Rockwell Green in 1923.

His first job was as an errand boy at Fox's Factory, in Wellington.

He joined the Home Guard at 14, working for the Ministry of Works constructing Dunkeswell airfield runways, driving the concrete lorries.

He was conscripted into the army at 18 and immediately volunteered for the Paratroopers as he thought it would be more exciting.

He was in A company of the 8th Battalion Parachute Regiment and first saw action on the night before D-Day in June 1944, when he parachuted into German occupied France and was involved in fierce fighting around Caen and then liberating Northern France.

On his return to England in September, he was involved in recruiting and training new Paratroopers.

On Christmas Eve his battalion was sent back to Northern Europe to take part in the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes forest, in Belgium.

The winter conditions were terrible, and Stan remembered it as the coldest he had ever been.

He returned to England and then on March 24 1945, he parachuted into Germany in broad daylight as one of the first troops to land to secure the drop zone for the huge Operation Varsity, when more than 7,000 Paratroopers took part.

Over the next six weeks he fought his way across northern Germany until they reached the Baltic Sea at Wismar and met up with the Russian army in early May, which brought the war in Europe to an end.

Stan was one of only a handful of men from his company of about 150 to survive and he was temporarily made Company Sergeant Major and took charge as all the officers had either been killed or wounded.

On his return to England he married Rosina Moore, from Newcastle, who he had met while he was recruiting for the Parachute Regiment about a year before.

After two weeks' leave, Stan was sent to India to take part in jungle training in preparation for fighting Japan.

However, the atomic bombs dropped on Japan finished the war and in September 1945 Stan was then sent to Palestine for peace-keeping duties.

He returned to England in December 1946, left the army and went to live with Rosina’s family in Newcastle.

Stan got a job with a firm of coach builders and began his life of carpentry.

In 1948 the couple moved to Taunton and Stan started working for South West coach builders.

He soon set up his own coach building business in East Reach, but after a few years, this no longer became profitable as factories started producing cars in large numbers and he started working as a carpenter for Woolaway Homes.

In time he built up a contractor business, doing all the woodwork for Woolaway nationally, employing about 12 carpenters.

He also went to Saudi Arabia and Bermuda for Woolaway to supervise house building projects.

The stress and strain of managing so many men forced him to make changes and so he then became one of Woolaway’s fix-it men, travelling all over the UK to rectify problems with the new bungalows.

While working for Woolaway, Stan built his own bungalow at Haydon on the outskirts of Taunton, where he and Rosina brought up their six children.

Stan was a keen fisherman and built his own boat, which he kept at Porlock Weir and would take any opportunity to get an hour or two fishing wherever he was working.

He and Rosina became Catholics in the 1950s and were devoted to St George's Church in Taunton.

As well as six children, they also had seven grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

After retirement he became involved with the West Somerset branch of the Parachute Regimental Association and was president for 12 years.

He was a keen supporter of the Poppy Appeal and for many years collected outside the Tesco store in Taunton.

Local people young and old always stopped to ask about his service and medals and Stan was always ready to chat.

His son-in-law Simon Tame said: "He was a true gentleman who will be missed by all who knew him."