Killed for £40 and his OAP bus pass: Agonising death of Eisenhower's driver, 90, attacked on his own doorstep by 'despicable' mugger

In wartime, as in the rest of his days, Geoffrey Bacon showed quiet courage.



He acted as personal driver to Montgomery and Eisenhower, and volunteered to risk his life on secret missions against the Nazis.



Even at the age of 90, after losing his beloved wife, he still fended for himself living alone in a second-floor flat and walking daily to the shops.



But that independent spirit finally cost him his life at the hands of a callous thug.

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Police yesterday launched a murder inquiry after Mr Bacon died from injuries suffered in an attack on his own doorstep.

Seeing the frail great-grandfather return from his shopping trip, the robber waited until he opened his door then threw him to the floor and punched him in the face.



After ransacking the flat, the attacker escaped with the old man's wallet containing £40 and his bus pass, slamming the front door and leaving him lying with a shattered hip.



It was 30 agonising minutes before a neighbour heard him banging on the door with a walking stick.



Mr Bacon, whose hip had to be replaced, survived for more than three months in a hospital and nursing home in Kent after the attack at his home in south-east London.



But he was distraught at being away from Camberwell, where he had lived for 84 years, and he never recovered.



Detectives say that because his injuries caused his death, it was murder.



They are offering a £20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the killer, who they believe is also responsible for a cowardly mugging half an hour later in a neighbouring block of flats, where he hit a disabled woman of 66 about the head with her handbag before running off with it.

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Mr Bacon, who had two sons, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, was described by police as the victim of a 'despicable' attack

'This is the sort of crime which touches a chord with people - it certainly touches a chord with those investigating it,' said Detective Inspector Richard Beadle.



'Geoff was the epitome of the London man. He loved Camberwell and suddenly that lifelong feeling was taken away. We're talking about an extremely vulnerable elderly man attacked from behind.



'It is the worst you can possibly imagine and it has led to the worst possible outcome. We will do everything in our power to find the person responsible.'



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Geoffrey Bacon joined the Territorial Army in 1937, and was called up to the regular Army after the war started two years later.



He reluctantly told his family that he volunteered for the top-secret Special Operations Executive but would never give details.

GENERAL EISENHOWER - THE MAN WHO COMMANDED THE D-DAY INVASION Dwight 'Ike' Eisenhower (pictured) was a five-star general in the United States Army who went on to become the 34th President from 1953 until 1961. He arrived in England in June 1942 to assume command of all U.S. military forces stationed in Britain. It is during this period that Geoff Bacon is thought to have become his driver. A few months later Eisenhower commanded the Allied Forces landing in North Africa in November 1942 and on D-Day, 1944, he was Supreme Commander of the troops invading France. After the war he briefly become president of Columbia University in the U.S. before beating Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson in the presidential race in 1952. He survived several heart attacks, but finally died of congestive heart failure on March 28, 1969.

By the time the Nazis were on the retreat he was working as a chauffeur in France - and among his passengers was General Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the Allied Forces during the D-Day landings in France in 1944, who went on to become U.S. President.



Mr Bacon also drove for Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery - Britain's best known military commander of the war.



At one point, while stationed in Windsor, he was with his wife Edith and saved her from an attacking Luftwaffe plane, grabbing her and diving into a ditch as it screamed towards them.



After leaving the Army in 1946 he worked first as a mechanic then for the Post Office and in a jeweller's before retiring aged 69.



In later years he was a keen amateur artist, and he and Edith received a telegram from the Queen on their 60th anniversary in 2003.



Edith died two years later but Mr Bacon remained in their home. 'He was very, very well known in the area,' said his son Philip, 63.



'He was a very sociable man, he talked to everybody, he was friends with everybody and he helped everybody.



'If someone left their milk out on the doorstep he would always knock on the door and make sure they were OK. He had a real community spirit and he always had time for people.'

After the attack, in late April, Mr Bacon told police that the culprit was a light-skinned black man in his thirties.



'He was attacked from behind and punched and kicked on the ground,' added his son.



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'He had bruising to his shoulder and a broken hip. How could anyone do that to a poor old chap? The attacker went out and shut the door and just left him there.



'If he had asked my dad he would have given him the money, £30 or £40, whatever he wanted it for. There was no need to attack my dad - no need at all.'



Following his hip replacement, Mr Bacon was in great pain, his son added. 'Losing his independence was the final straw for him. He became disillusioned.



'He thought the world of the people of Camberwell, he loved the place. But when he was in hospital he said, "It means nothing to me now".



'The robber didn't have to do this to my Dad, didn't have to end his life - because that is what he did. I would ask anyone with any information-to come forward to help the police and help us come to terms with what's happened.



'He was a very proud man and his home was his kingdom. This scum took all that away from him.



'If I got hold of the person who did this I wouldn't like to say what I would do to him.



He's a complete coward who decided picking on a 90-year-old frail old man was easy.



'If we were in the 1940s now he wouldn't have tried it on with my Dad - my Dad would have ripped his head off. He was a very tough and fit soldier.



He lived for 84 years in Camberwell. In those days it was a wonderful place to live but it's very different today.

