ONE of the last surviving World War Two veterans has died a few months after celebrating his 99th birthday.

Burma Star recipient Doug Temple passed away in Poole Hospital last week after suffering a fall at his home in Bournemouth.

He was born in Malta in 1923 but the family moved back to Britain when his father was posted to RAF Calshot in 1927.

During the war Doug trained as a pilot in the UK and in Canada, operating against the Japanese in the Far East.

He also flew across the world on transport and positioning flights and sorties dropping depth charges.

He was rated on several different aircraft types including the Tiger Moth, Liberator, Anson, Mitchell, Halifax and Dakota.

Remarkably he joined up at the age of 16 just two days after war broke out in September 1939, initially as an engineer before completing his pilot training.

A recruiting officer told him: "We don't need pilots. They are ten a penny. We need engineers to mend the aircraft the pilots break."

Friend of more than two decades and fellow Rotarian Maurice Patterson, who served with distinction as an RAF pilot in the Cold War said: "Doug's RAF service played an important part in his life and but for a punctured lung, he would have made the RAF his career.

"Throughout the years that I knew him, I never saw him without his RAF tie, and in the last few years, he would proudly wear his medals which included the Burma Star and his RAF Flying Wings."

He added: "Doug was an amazing fellow and true gentleman."

Doug was a popular figure at the Bournemouth Air Festival in recent years including in 2021 and had also served as a councillor on Bournemouth Borough Council.

He celebrated his 99th birthday at the Collingwood Hotel in Bournemouth on January 29 with 50 friends family members and colleagues.

On the day he said the event, organised by close friend Roz Scammell, had brought him "much joy" and he would always cherish it.