{"id":2011787,"date":"2025-09-10T15:34:47","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T15:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2011787"},"modified":"2025-09-10T15:34:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T15:34:47","slug":"princess-royal-presents-medal-to-106-year-old-ww2-veteran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/princess-royal-presents-medal-to-106-year-old-ww2-veteran\/","title":{"rendered":"Princess Royal presents medal to 106-year-old WW2 veteran"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"\" data-article-body=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A 106-year-old war veteran from Coleraine has received a British Empire Medal from the Princess Royal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The presentation to Norman Irwin was made at a garden party at Hillsborough Castle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He is believed to be the oldest man in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">With him at the presentation were family members including his 78-year-old son David and grandson Chris, 44.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"group absolute bottom-3 right-3 size-10 md:size-[50px] lg:inset-0 lg:size-full lg:bg-transparent\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"absolute bottom-0 right-0 rounded-full bg-white p-3 opacity-100 shadow-elevation-3 transition-opacity duration-300 group-hover:block group-hover:opacity-100 md:p-[17px] lg:bottom-6 lg:right-6 lg:bg-white\/90 lg:p-5 lg:opacity-0 lg:shadow-none\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Modal dialogue\" aria-modal=\"true\" class=\"fixed inset-0 z-4 size-full max-h-none max-w-none bg-white hidden\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<p>The Princess Royal was attending the annual garden party at Hillsborough Castle [PA Media]<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">After presenting him with the medal, the Princess Royal asked Norman if he would be celebrating later with a drink.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Bushmills,&#8221; he replied.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Really? I never would have guessed,&#8221; she replied jokingly.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><img alt=\"The Princess Royal wearing a black coat and grey hat inside a room in Hillsborough Castle. She has a bag over her shoulder. She is speaking to Norman Irwin, who is in a grey suit. He is standing, with his wheelchair behind him. He has a medal in his pocket. There are gold-framed photos on the walls and a large fireplace. Four people are standing round the edge of the room, smiling.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/qDY65ntASvUyj_.QgyNL_w--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MDtjZj13ZWJw\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/bbc_us_articles_995\/1db092a5d79b9fdd3d48e914a402b39f\"\/><button aria-label=\"View larger image\" class=\"group absolute bottom-3 right-3 size-10 md:size-[50px] lg:inset-0 lg:size-full lg:bg-transparent\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\"><span class=\"absolute bottom-0 right-0 rounded-full bg-white p-3 opacity-100 shadow-elevation-3 transition-opacity duration-300 group-hover:block group-hover:opacity-100 md:p-[17px] lg:bottom-6 lg:right-6 lg:bg-white\/90 lg:p-5 lg:opacity-0 lg:shadow-none\"><svg viewbox=\"0 0 22 22\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"size-4 lg:size-6\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\"><path d=\"M12.372.92c0-.506.41-.916.915-.916L21 0l-.004 7.712a.917.917 0 0 1-1.832 0V3.183l-6.827 6.828-1.349-1.348 6.828-6.828h-4.529a.915.915 0 0 1-.915-.915M1.835 17.816l6.828-6.828 1.349 1.349-6.829 6.827h4.529a.915.915 0 0 1 0 1.831L0 21l.004-7.713a.916.916 0 0 1 1.831 0z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/button><dialog aria-label=\"Modal dialogue\" aria-modal=\"true\" class=\"fixed inset-0 z-4 size-full max-h-none max-w-none bg-white hidden\"\/><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<p>Norman insisted on standing after he received his medal [PA Media]<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Even though he uses a wheelchair, Norman insisted on standing up after he received the medal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He was awarded it in the most recent King&#8217;s Birthday Honours list for a range of voluntary work in his home town in County Londonderry, including at a cross-community club for retirees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Norman <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c0qnqzzydygo?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:was a factory apprentice when World War Two broke out.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">was a factory apprentice when World War Two broke out.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He joined the Army and was deployed to Egypt to protect the Suez Canal from German attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He was just 20.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"mb-4 text-xl font-bold md:text-2xl\">More on this story<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source au.news.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 106-year-old war veteran from Coleraine has received a British Empire Medal from the Princess Royal. The presentation to Norman Irwin was made at a garden party at Hillsborough Castle. He is believed to be the oldest man in Northern Ireland. With him at the presentation were family members including his 78-year-old son David and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2011788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[368050,368049,368051,368047,368046,368048,324220],"class_list":["post-2011787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-birthday-honours-list","tag-british-empire-medal","tag-grandson-chris","tag-hillsborough-castle","tag-norman-irwin","tag-pa-media","tag-the-princess-royal"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Princess-Royal-presents-medal-to-106-year-old-WW2-veteran.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2011787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2011788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2011787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2011787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2011787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}