Vernon Kay shares heartbreaking tribute as one of Britain’s last D-Day heroes dies aged 100

BBC star Vernon Kay has paid tribute to Second World War veteran Dougie Shelley after the war hero died aged 100, marking the loss of one of the last surviving sailors who served on D-Day.

Kay reposted a touching image to his Instagram Stories showing Shelley smiling, alongside the years 1925 to 2026, after BBC Essex shared news of his death. The Royal Naval Association said it was “incredibly sad” to hear that Shelley had “crossed the bar,” a naval expression for a sailor’s passing.

Shelley was no ordinary veteran.

He joined the Royal Navy at just 17 and went on to serve in the brutal Arctic convoys before taking part in one of the most pivotal operations in modern history: the Normandy landings. He served as a seaman gunner aboard HMS Milne, helping guard troops as they went ashore on D-Day in June 1944.

It is hard not to feel the weight of that loss.

Men like Dougie Shelley are disappearing now, one by one, taking with them living memories of the most defining moments of the 20th century. Just months before his death, Shelley had celebrated his 100th birthday after receiving more than 15,000 cards from well-wishers, a remarkable tribute that showed just how deeply his generation is still cherished.

After the war, Shelley’s life of service did not simply end with peace.

He later worked on ships carrying the “Ten Pound Poms” to Australia before going on to serve as a driver for the Ministry of Defence, building a postwar life that remained tied to duty and public service.

Following news of his death, tributes flooded in from members of the public, with many thanking him for his service and for the freedom generations since have enjoyed because of men like him. That reaction speaks to something bigger than nostalgia. Britain still recognizes what it owes to these veterans, especially the dwindling number who were there when history was being written in real time.

For Vernon Kay, the tribute to Shelley came not long after another painful public moment.

Last week on his BBC Radio 2 show, Kay stopped live on air to announce the unexpected death of colleague Ian Deeley, who died at the age of 45. Kay described Deeley as a brilliant studio manager and said the BBC family had been devastated by the loss. Radio industry reporting said Deeley had built a long BBC career across news, production, and outside broadcasts before becoming an Outside Broadcast Manager last year.

That makes Kay’s tribute to Shelley feel even more poignant.

In the space of days, he has publicly mourned two very different men: one a young broadcasting professional taken far too soon, the other a centenarian war hero who had lived a century marked by courage, service, and survival.

But in a way, both tributes carry the same message.

That behind public life, behind radio, television, and even national history, it is people who matter. People who served. People who built. People who carried something bigger than themselves.

And in Dougie Shelley’s case, that legacy is enormous.

He was there when the world was on fire.
He was there when young men crossed the sea into gunfire and chaos.
And now, more than 80 years later, Britain is saying goodbye to one of the last who can truly say: I was there.