The nation bid farewell to the last known Antiguan and Barbudan to have served in the Second World War on Friday.
Morrison Appleton, who was one of many men and women from the Caribbean to voluntarily enlist for the 1939-1945 conflict, was laid to rest yesterday.
Family, friends and well-wishers flocked to the Ebenezer Methodist Church on St Mary’s Street to pay their respects to the 95-year-old.
Appleton, who died on August 19, is being remembered by family – including his daughter Maxine Greenaway and grandson Vaughn Parker – as easygoing, kind, eminently punctual in sync with his military training, and an avid music lover. He was also a keen cook who loved to prepare bull foot soup and banana fritters.
After leaving the military, Appleton worked as a security guard; his last position was at the Mill Reef Club.
He was an active member of the Ex-Servicemen’s Association.
The organisation’s President Johnson Browne described Appleton as “very jovial” and “full of life up to the end”.
Although Appleton never saw the battlefield, he joined the Caribbean Regiment – a branch of the British Army – as part of the war effort and underwent training in St Kitts before taking part in general army duties across the region.
Browne recalled that Appleton loved to meet members of international organisations who would occasionally visit the country to meet with veterans.
“One phrase he would always say was – ‘old soldiers never die; they just fade away’,” Browne said.
Appleton was buried at the cemetery in his home village of Bethesda.