A D-Day veteran who left for Normandy from Hampshire and was shot multiple times during the Second World War has died.

Cecil Newton, of Marlborough, Wiltshire, was one of more than 6,000 troops who left Lepe for the Normandy landings in 1944. He sadly passed away yesterday, Thursday, May 1.

The 101-year-old ex-serviceman was a member of the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards.

He went ashore in Normandy in a Sherman Duplex Drive (DD) tank, an amphibious craft equipped with a propeller that enabled it to travel across water.

After surviving the landings, he cheated death for a second time later in the war when he was shot several times by a German soldier.

Fragments of the bullets remained lodged in his chest.

His family confirmed to the BBC that he died peacefully in his sleep.

READ MORE: Wiltshire D-Day veteran returns to Hampshire beach he left from

His son, Paul, in a previous statement to the Daily Echo, said: "My father never talked about D-Day until 1994, when he went back to Normandy, met some of the people he served with, and received a very warm welcome from the French people."

Mr Newton and his comrades saw action on Gold Beach, with their objectives including securing a beachhead and linking up with Canadian forces to the east.

Just last year, he made an emotional visit to a memorial in Lepe commemorating the role played by the Royal Dragoon Guards in the liberation of Europe.

He read aloud the names of more than 100 comrades killed during the invasion and laid a wreath at the memorial after managing a few steps with the aid of his walker.

Cecil Newton reads out the names of more than 100 comrades killed during the Normandy invasion (Image: Newsquest.)

Recalling his experiences, Mr Newton described the deafening noise made by battleships opening fire on the German defences.

READ MORE: List of street parties taking place in Southampton to mark VE Day 80

He also recalled the moment his tank toppled into a water-filled shell hole and became stuck.

He said: "I noticed a group of sailors near the demolished entrance to an underground bunker.

"They were throwing lumps of concrete at a half-buried German.

"I grabbed the nearest by the arm and told him to stop.

"He turned around and said: 'They killed my mates'."

Lepe was one of several embarkation points along the south coast. Dubbed the biggest seaborne invasion in history, the landings drove the Germans out of France and heralded the end of the Second World War.