A DORSET village turned out to say farewell to Second World War hero Arthur Shackleton, who has died aged 96.

At his funeral held at St Michael’s Church in Owermoigne, Army personnel carried Mr Shackleton’s coffin draped in the Union flag.

Friends, family and army colleagues gathered to pay tribute to the former member of the Glider Pilot Regiment, now known as the Army Air Corp.

Mr Shackleton passed away peacefully in his sleep at the Joseph Weld Hospice in Dorchester on December 28.

He flew into Holland in September 1944 for Operation Market Garden – the largest airborne operation in history, which included the Battle of Arnhem. He was also involved in the crossing of the Rhine.

During the Arnhem operation, after landing near enemy lines, Mr Shackleton was shot in the shoulder while trying to save nine fellow servicemen.

Speaking to the Echo in 2009, Mr Shackleton, who is a distant relative of the polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, recalled the incident: “There were bullets and shells flying everywhere.

“The next thing I know, a machine gun opened up and killed all of them. I survived, but the bullet is still in me.”

He tried to board a boat on a nearby river but it was blown up, leaving him with a second shrapnel injury to his leg.

Mr Shackleton said two Canadian servicemen saved his life by dragging him from the water, after which he was transferred back to England to recuperate.

Mr Shackleton, who was originally from Yorkshire, returned many times to the battlefields to pay his respects to his fallen comrades and, together with his wife Margaret, was heavily involved in the Glider Pilots Regimental Association.

Mrs Shackleton, 81, said her husband helped out twice a year taking soldiers to the battlefields to share his experience. Mr Shackleton was also passionate about talking to young people about the horrors of war and often went into schools to share his wartime memories.

After the war Mr Shackleton worked as a lorry driver before working for Dunlop, first as a rep then as an area manager.

Mrs Shackleton paid tribute to her husband, saying: “He was the most generous man, the most caring man.

“I could use all sorts of descriptions – they would all fit him – easy-going, didn’t like authority.”

She added: “Arthur had an incredible sense of humour which he never lost, not even at the end, he never lost it.”

The couple originally met in 1949 when Mrs Shackleton was 16 and her mother’s dry cleaning fell off the back of her bike as she rode home. Mr Shackleton picked it up and returned it to her.

The pair remained friends but married other people, having three children each. Sadly both of their first marriages ended in the death of their partners.

Mr Shackleton then married Margaret in June 1997 at the church in Owermoigne. Mrs Shackleton said they were ‘very happy years’ they had together.

Mrs Shackleton thanked her family, friends, army friends and neighbours for their support and for the wonderful tributes at the funeral from Titus Mills, army padre Robin Richardson and Mr Shackleton’s great grandson, John Arthur Lewis, five.

A collection was held for Joseph Weld.