WW2 Military Honour for Aberfeldy Native
09.01.10
Aberfeldy man Albert Keir lived at Chapelton Cottage on Killiechassie estate, one of six children. He attended Breadalbane Academy, leaving at 14 to be an apprentice painter and decorator with Dalgleish of Eskdale, Taybridge Road, Aberfeldy.
Called up at the outbreak of WW2, he served in the Royal Navy taking part, aged 19, in the Normandy landings and the delivery of Mulberry floating docks to France.
 In 1944 on 6 June he was part of the force which ferried landing crafts back and forth through constant gunfire to Cherbourg beach, where they deposited American ground troops for the D-Day offensive as part of Operation Overlord.
Last December, Albert, who has lived in Bakewell in Derbyshire since the war, was presented with the Normandy Bar medal – inscribed ‘1944-2009 Normandy, Terre de Liberté’. It was awarded by a grateful French government to survivors of the invasion during the 65th anniversary ceremony last year, which Albert was unable at the time to attend in person. The December presentation, where Albert was pictured, was made by his local MP on behalf of the French government.
Said Albert: “Everybody was scared, but you just got on with what you had to do. We were under fire all the time. There were an awful lot of planes and ships involved, and there were bullets and shells flying around all over the place.
“I am proud of what we did. It was our job to deliver those troops and that is what we did,” he added.
Members of Albert’s family now live in New Zealand but one sister, Chrissie Munro, is still resident in Aberfeldy, in Chapel Street.
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