One of England's last First World War veterans died at his Kings Sutton, near Banbury, home on April 9.

Arthur Halestrap, who lived in Kensington Close, was 105 and had served his country in both world wars.

He was born in Southampton on September 8, 1898, and tried to join the army as a 16-year-old but was turned away when his parents refused to give permission.

But he joined up at the age of 18 as a signaller in the Royal Engineers. He was involved in the pioneering use of radio in war.

He was with the 46th (Midland) Division of the Royal Engineers and saw action in Belgium and France, including the battle to take the Hindenburg Line.

After the war, he was part of the Army of Occupation, based first in Cologne, then in Rotterdam. He was demobbed in 1920.

Mr Halestrap's training in radio and wireless enabled him to get a job in the trans-oceanic section of the Marconi Company as an operator telegraphist.

He was soon promoted and given wider responsibilities in the administration and organisation of the company.

In 1922, he married Gladys and they had two children, John and Pamela.

John was killed at the age of 20 in 1945. He was a navigator with 68 Squadron RAF and was returning from a mission over the Low Countries when his plane crashed on landing.

In 1939, Mr Halestrap joined the Special Operations Executive -- known as Churchill's Secret Army -- and was based at Bletchley Park, near Milton Keynes. He worked on the Enigma coding machine, helping to decipher German intelligence messages.

From 1942, he was a member of the Special Operations Executive. At one point he was chief signals officer at Grendon Underwood, one of the biggest SOE signals stations in the country.

After the war, he joined the Foreign Office and worked for Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, then for Marconi.

He was later awarded the MBE for his work for the Civil Service.

His wife died in 1969 and his daughter Pamela, who had married and emigrated to South Africa, died aged 45.

Mr Halestrap was a regular contributor to TV documentaries on the Great War and appeared on the BBC's The Trench and World War One in Colour.

In November last year he led the Armistice Day ceremony at Belgium's Menin Gates in Ypres, erected to remember the 55,000 soldiers who died during the First World War.

Mr Halestrap's funeral took place on April 13 in St Peter and St Paul's Church, Kings Sutton.