Marie Scott was just seventeen years old when she worked as a switchboard operator at Fort Southwick, the underground communication centre in Portsdown Hill which played such a pivotal role during D-Day. Her role was to relay progress of the invasion up the Chain of Command to General Eisenhower and Field Marshal Montgomery in nearby Southwick House. “The only thing I can still remember clearly of D-Day was that whenever we received messages we could hear gunfire – loud, loud gunfire. Not just from individual rifles, but from cannon.”
Now 92, Marie was one of eighteen Naval Service veterans who travelled in VIP style to Portsmouth last month thanks to funding from the RNRMC. Nine volunteer London Taxi drivers transported them back to Portsmouth, a city many of them had not seen since their Service ended.
The Naval Service veterans, who had all served their country in World War Two, were welcomed onto Whale Island and Naval Command Headquarters by Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Carriers and Aviation) Rear Admiral Martin Connell before being treated to lunch in the Ward Room and a few tipples of Pussers Rum!
A particularly poignant moment for Marie was realised when the group was granted access to Southwick House, the former D-Day headquarters and site of the original Map Room, opened especially for the veterans’ visit.
On their final day the veterans were also guests of the HM Naval Base, where they met and spoke to apprentices from BAE Systems, before joining specially invited guests for HMS Dragon's emotional homecoming following the Type 45 destroyer's seven-month deployment to the Middle East.
Ian Parsons, Vice Chairman, Taxi Charity for Military Veterans, said: "The Taxi Charity for Military Veterans would like to extend a special thank you to all the staff at the RNRMC for this hugely successful trip. It meant so much to these remarkable men and women to return to Portsmouth and the RNRMC have put together a wonderful and memorable itinerary for each and every one of them.”
As part of the 75th anniversary of D-Day this summer, Ms Scott will travel to Normandy with a group of 30 other Second World War veterans. She will be officially presented with the award by a French general at the Memorial Pegasus Museum in Normandy on 5 June.
She said: “I am truly overwhelmed to receive the Legion of Honour for the part I played in the D-Day landings. Very few women have received this medal and it is a true honour. Being officially presented with the medal at the Pegasus Museum on 5 June surrounded by a group of Second World War veterans will be a very moving experience.”
