A NEWLY elected town mayor is inviting the community to join him for a flag-raising ceremony.

Cllr Graham Scrogham, the recently elected Ulverston Town Mayor, will be hoisting the D-Day flag at the same time the first boats landed in Normandy in 1944.

To commemorate the 80th anniversary, the special flag will be hoisted at 6.30am on June 6 to coincide with the first boats arriving at the French beaches.

Cllr Scrogham has invited four people from the Royal British Legion to join him in the ceremony at the top of the Hoad Hill monument. 

The historical monument is an open invite to anybody who would like to come up and see the flag being hoisted. 

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"People who want to walk up are more than happy to come and join me," said Mr Scrogham.

"I was only intending to light the beacon at 9 o'clock at night but then I saw that the Royal British Legion were actually selling these commemorative flags to raise funds for the Royal British Legion and I just felt that it would be a fantastic tribute to fly that flag from the monument all day. 

"The monument is such an iconic structure in Ulverston and it means so much to so many people. It is something that I want to try and utilise to get people thinking people about the sacrifices that happened on that day and the fact that we are what we are today thanks to those people.

"People will be able to see the flag from anywhere in Ulverston."

The Normandy landings were part of the largest invasion ever assembled in which 156,000 allied troops arrived by sea and air at five beachheads in Normandy, France.

D-Day was the start of allied operations which would ultimately liberate Western Europe, defeat Nazi Germany and end the Second World War.

Mr Scrogham added: "I appreciate that D-Day started with paratroopers at midnight but I did not want to raise the flag in the dark and risk anyone hurting themselves on the way down in darkness so I chose to use the beach landing timing."