A village that has been empty since it was evacuated to make way for D-Day training exercises 79 years ago is to have a final funeral after its last son died.
Allied forces cleared 150 villagers from the Wiltshire village of Imber in December 1943 and they were not allowed to return after the war.
The village, which was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, remains part of the Army’s Salisbury Plain training area and is open to visitors only a few times a year.
Written proof of former residency is needed for anyone to be buried at its medieval church of St Giles.
Ray Nash, who has died aged 87, was just a baby when he left with his mother after the death of his father in 1936, when Ray was just a year old.
Ray became a mechanic in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, .
Every year on St Giles’ Day, September 1, he would visit Imber where his father was buried, joined by family including wife Elaine and son Kelvin with his wife Pam. Photos show the visitors in the doorway and windows of his mother’s abandoned home – still standing to this day.
Son Kelvin, 63, said Ray had always wanted to be buried there with him, and has permission from the Ministry of Defence for a funeral in the new year.
Kelvin reckons his dad is likely to be the last person to be buried in the village as it unlikely any other former residents are still alive
He said: “Every year we would go and visit the church and village, which would be open to the public. My great-uncle Albert was the village blacksmith and was evacuated from the village in 1943. He died in 1944 of a broken heart, according to his death certificate, so it was a difficult thing for the family.
“I think the last funeral was about 10 years ago now. There is a man who has volunteered for 17 years to look after the village who has connections with the MoD who sorted everything for us.
“On the day we will have to be escorted by the Army into the village.
“I went there a week ago to check [Ray’s] father’s grave – there was no other human within a five-mile radius.
