From the Royal Navy News: The last surviving World War 2 bomb disposal diver was honoured during a visit to the Diving Museum in Gosport.

John Payne, now 96, was on the first ‘P’ Party 1571 group – a select team of divers who cleared mines and unexploded bombs from harbours and ports in occupied Europe.

He was on the Normandy beaches following D-Day, helping to secure the Allied bridgehead and, along with others, saved many lives.

Mr Payne, who attended the event with wife Jill, started training as a clearance diver in 1943 and was one of up to 100 P Party divers. He left the Royal Navy in 1946 and now lives in West Sussex.

The P or Ports Parties – who were effectively human minesweepers, making harbours safe before troops went in – paved the way for the modern-day Royal Navy mine clearance divers.

Members of the Fleet Diving Unit, led by Warrant Officer 1 (Diver) Si Crew, joined Mr Payne at the museum.

WO1 Crew said: “I looked at the equipment that he was wearing, a canvas suit, a mask with really limited visibility and a diving set that I probably wouldn’t even have used in the bath.

“To look at what he dealt with on the D-Day beaches, it’s absolutely unbelievable.”