WALTER Fillis, who has died just short of his 98th birthday, was the oldest ex-serviceman in the Bromham branch of the Royal British Legion.

Mr Fillis was also one of the few survivors of the Lancastria, a Cunard liner carrying refugees from France that was bombed by the Luftwaffe, with the loss of an estimated 6,500 lives.

Born in Devizes, on October 17 1908, Mr Fillis was apprenticed to local building firm W E Chivers as a welder/fitter.

But he enlisted in the Wiltshire Regiment in 1927, serving a nine-year contract.

He married Sylvia Long at St Nicholas Church, Bromham, but the couple did not have long together before Mr Fillis was called up again in September 1939.

Mr Fillis was among the troops who protected the rearguard of the British Expeditionary Force who embarked at Dunkirk in 1940.

He was demobbed in 1941 due to the stress of his experiences on the Lancastria.

He was given his old job back at W E Chivers but ill health dogged him and until he could recover properly he worked with his father-in-law Walter Long in his woodturning business.

He then took a job as a foreman with Sahara Sandpits at Sandridge but suffered the loss of a finger then chronic neck pain in two separate accidents.

He later worked as a storeman at the Ministry of Defence Proof and Experimental Establishment at Gore Cross.

Previously, he had played for Devizes Town Football Club and was captain of the darts team at the New Inn, Westbrook. He and Mrs Fillis enjoyed dancing at the Woodlands Club in Calne.

He leaves six children, 22 grandchildren, 52 great grandchildren and one great great grandchild. Mrs Fillis died in 1993.

At his funeral at St Nicholas Church on Monday, his coffin was borne in a horse-drawn hearse and there was an honour guard of members of the Bromham branch of the Royal British Legion.