The last surviving resident of Tyneham, the Dorset "ghost village" evacuated for D-Day training, has died aged 100.
Peter Wellman, born in 1924, was the final remaining person born in the abandoned coastal settlement before his death in April.
He was the last person to speak with an authentic Tyneham valley voice, which has a distinctive Dorset burr.
His ancestors had lived in the village for generations before the evacuation.
Wellman visited his old village at the age of 99
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Tyneham became known as the "village that died for England" when its residents were forced to leave their homes in 1943.
Some 250 residents of the village and nearby farms were evacuated to allow Allied soldiers to practise house-to-house combat.
The villagers were promised they could return once the war was over, but it was never kept, and they never returned to their homes.
It remains under the ownership of the Ministry of Defence to this day.
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Wellman's primary school and church have been preserved as time capsules from the period.
"They were told they could come back, but they were never allowed," Wellman recalled.
He added: "We had no electricity, no mains gas and no running water; we had to pump that from near the church. There's a tap there now.
"I remember going to the beach and fishing, and we often had mackerel. We were happy until we got moved out."
Wellman's (second from the left on the bottom row) class in the late 1920s/early 30s
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Wellman left Tyneham at the age of 14, before the wartime evacuation. He worked on a farm for 36 years before changing careers to the clay industry.
Lynne, Wellman's daughter, said: "Dad always loved Tyneham and he visited regularly until he had a fall a few years ago. He was delighted when we took him back last year. He loved talking to people there and telling them about the village and what life was like."
Wellman had been living in Swanage before his death. He died peacefully in his sleep after suffering from pneumonia.
The great-great-grandfather's funeral will take place in Corfe Castle on May 22.
Elise Neville from James Smith Funeral Directors, who is arranging the funeral, said: "Peter is the last living link to the village of Tyneham and with him departs a piece of history. So many of the small communities in and around the Isle of Purbeck have families who go back many generations, and Peter is one of them.
"It is a great privilege to arrange Peter's funeral."
