Stanley Howard Tooze and his identical twin Edwin were born in Rockwell Green in 1923.
His first job was as an errand boy at Fox's Factory, in Wellington.
He joined the Home Guard at 14, working for the Ministry of Works constructing Dunkeswell airfield runways, driving the concrete lorries.
He was conscripted into the army at 18 and immediately volunteered for the Paratroopers as he thought it would be more exciting.
He was in A company of the 8th Battalion Parachute Regiment and first saw action on the night before D-Day in June 1944, when he parachuted into German occupied France and was involved in fierce fighting around Caen and then liberating Northern France.