Appeal by Beverley WW2 veteran's nephew for people to attend his funeral

A man is appealing for people to attend his war veteran great-uncle's funeral after only four mourners were set to attend it.Wilfred Slater died on 27 April at the age of 97, although his great-nephew John Benson posted on Twitter asking for other veterans to come to his funeral to honour him at the ceremony in Haltemprice in East Yorkshire.

"He was one of four, but all of his siblings had passed away before him. He wasn’t married and had no children," said Mr Benson, from Cottingham.“It was likely going to be just the four of us – myself and my wife, and my mum and dad – who were going to be at the funeral," he said.

"We decided to drum up a bit of support.”

Wilfred, from Beverley, joined the East Yorkshire Regiment in 1944 aged 18, and saw service in North West Europe and later Egypt and Palestine.In 1945, only a few days after his 19th birthday, Wilfred was shot in both legs in a German sniper attack on a farmhouse.

He was evacuated and treated in Belgium before returning to active service.

Leaving the army in 1947, Wilfred began working as a lorry driver.

“He was a very strong character and lived by himself until earlier on this year," said Mr Benson."He was totally independent up until Covid and the lockdowns, when we took over doing his shopping and paying his bills for him.Wilfred was actively involved with veterans' activities in East Yorkshire, going on multiple trips to Belgium and France.

"His service and military life were very important to him, but like a lot of his generation, he didn’t talk about the war that much," said Mr Benson.

It was only after a fall this year that Wilfred went into residential care at Kirk Ella Mansions.“He’s only been in there for about three weeks when he died. The staff there were absolutely lovely and brilliant with him for the short time he was there,” said Mr Benson.

Since Mr Benson first put out the appeal, the family have heard that local veterans with standards plan to line the drive to the crematorium and that a bugler will play the Last Post.

“If we can use the power of the media, and social media, to give Wilfred the last few moments of respect he deserves, then that’s what we aim to do," he said.“It isn’t [about] what we want, it’s what he would have wanted.”

Wilfred Slater's funeral is due to take place at Haltemprice Crematorium on 22 May at 1.30pm.

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