ONE man who played a vital part in getting troops onto the Normandy beaches in the D-Day invasion spent most of his life in Christchurch.

Sir Donald Bailey, known as one of the Second World War’s most brilliant boffins, invented the moveable military bridge that bears his name and which played a vital role in the Allied victory.

A civil engineer who joined the civil service in 1928 Sir Donald scribbled his design for the simple wartime bridge on the back of an envelope while working at the Military Engineering and Experimental Establishment (MEXE) in Christchurch.

The Bailey Bridge, assembled in lightweight steel panels and capable of spanning 240ft, was used in North Africa, Italy and Holland and helped thousands of men, tanks and guns across countless obstacles on the long march through France.

At the end of the war Sir Donald, who was knighted in 1946, recalled how the government had ordered urgent test work on the prototype bridge at the fall of France.

He said: “I had the bare bones of the idea at the beginning of the war and, after France, the plans were at once put in hand. On February 14, 1941, a letter came from London ordering a full trial of a completed bridge by May.

“Production drawings had to be made, steel rolled, jigs for manufacture thought out and fabricated. By May 1, this tremendous task was completed.”

Sappers from the Royal Engineers had just one hour to practice before a 2pm demonstration in front of Army top brass at Christchurch and the Bailey Bridge went on to be dubbed “one of the war’s marvels”.

After the war, Sir Donald became director of the Christchurch establishment and worked on many other military projects. He died in 1985, in the 40th week of the anniversary of VE Day.