Clive Kemp, president of the Island’s D-Day Normandy Veterans Association, and the association’s secretary and standard bearer, Fred Newton, have been awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur.
Both men modestly said the honour was not for them individually but all the members of the association.
The Jersey veterans are among just nine British veterans singled out for their role in the liberation of France.
To mark the 60th anniversary of D-Day and the end of the war in Europe and the Pacific, the French Government decided to bestow one of its highest honours on members of Allied ex-service organisations.
Mr Kemp, who served in the company of Royal Engineers which built the first Bailey Bridge across the Caen Canal near Pegasus Bridge, said: ‘We’re over the moon.
We’ve been singled out for the work we did arranging the trip to Normandy last June for the 60th anniversary of D-Day.
It’s not a bravery award.’
