FIVE Ringwood veterans have been awarded France's highest military honour for their involvement in the liberation of France during the Second World War.

George Heaton, Ivor Hopkins, Anthony Mott, Sidney Slatter and Roy Tamplin, were awarded the rank of Chevalier in the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur at a ceremony on Monday.

Desmond Swayne, the MP for New Forest West, handed the medal to the five men at an award ceremony at Ringwood Gateway.

One of the recipients, Roy Tamplin, 92, said the entire event was a "humbling experience".

"To receive this honour is quite something and I vow to treat it as the highest honour - as it is in France," he added.

The Legion of Honour is the highest French order for military and civil merits, established in 1802 by Napoléon Bonaparte.

In 2014, as part of the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the French Government decided to bestow the decoration to all those still surviving who took part in the Battle of Normandy during 1944.

Roy was just 20-year-old when he worked as an Rolls Royce engine fitter for the RAF during the Battle of Normandy.

"Before D-Day I was based at an airfield in Ringwood preparing the aircrafts for the flight to France," said Roy, who has two children.

"On June 24, my squadron flew over to Gold Beach in Normandy where we then followed the front-line all the way up to Brussels.

"We would service the aircrafts so they were fit to fly."

Monday's presentation was preceded by a short service conducted by the Reverend Terry Roberts at St Peter and St Paul Church in Ringwood to commemorate the 72nd anniversary of D-Day.

Following the service, those attending were led in procession along the High Street by the Royal British Legion Standard bearer to The Gateway building.