Union flag with fascinating story will be flown in village near Banbury to mark the King's Coronation

The flag will fly on the Greensward bus shelter for the Coronation.

The flag has direct link to Captain Sir Tom Moore

A Union flag with a fascinating story will be flown in a village near Banbury to mark the King's Coronation.

Everyone remembers the late Captain Sir Tom Moore, who caught the public’s eye when, 100 years of age, he set out to raise money for the NHS by walking around his garden with his Zimmer-frame.

But little did Wardington resident Roderick Stell know that the flag he flew during the late Queen’s notable birthdays and Jubilees had a direct connection to Captain Tom - until he read his autobiography after his death in 2020.

Captain Tom and Roderick both came from Keighley and Roderick discovered that Captain Tom and his father had both served in the Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment.

Roderick said: "Captain Tom was brought up in one of the houses that his grandfather built, but the thing that was really astonishing was to find that it was the same house that Nikki and I moved into after our wedding in 1970 and where we and our family lived for 40 years.

"Further on my attention was caught by Captain Tom’s description of his homecoming on short leave in March 1945, following service with the regiment in Burma and in India.

"He wrote, “I arrived at Keighley station to find my father waiting for me. When I reached home, the first thing that I noticed was that he had hoisted the Union Jack to mark my return and to tell the town ‘Our Tom’s home’”."

Forty years after that, Roderick was in his loft when he came across the Union Flag, neatly rolled up on its flag-pole under years of dust."Unaware of its history, we used it to help us to celebrate events such as our late Queen’s notable birthdays and Jubilees and webrought it to Wardington when we left the house in Keighley," said Roderick.

"Only recently, on reading his book in 2020, did I realise that this is the same flag that Tom’s father bought to welcome Tom home in 1945."

"Faded though it is, the flag will fly on the Greensward bus shelter for the Coronation, before being stored carefully to await the next appropriate event."