Gavin Mortimer interviews D-Day veteran Jim Booth and learns of an extraordinary man and his incredible war.
INTERVIEW | GUIDING THE NORMANDY INVASION
In October 2017 D-Day veteran Jim Booth was viciously attacked in his home by a homeless drug addict. Despite being hit several times with a hammer in the cowardly assault, 96-year-old Jim fought off his assailant and was in court earlier this year to see the thug sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Asked to reflect on his ordeal, Jim, with characteristic modesty, told reporters: “Well, worse things happen at sea, as they say.” His sangfroid attitude, and his remarkable recovery, won the heart of the nation.
Jim Booth was born into comfort. His father’s family were in shipping and his mother came from Anglo-Irish stock. His parents’ first child, Julia, died in infancy, two days after Jim was born on 9 July 1921.
As a young lad it was apparent he had inherited his mother’s irreverence, an exuberance he learned to curb when he was sent to Eton.
“I wrote a letter to the Admiralty volunteering for something more exciting.”
He thrived at music and sport, particularly rowing, but scraped through his exams to earn a place at Cambridge to read medicine.
He went up in S…
