Former head of the British military and D-Day hero Lord Bramall has died aged 95.

The veteran, who was a part of nearly every major UK military campaign from the Second World War until his retirement in 1985, passed away at his home in Crondall, Hampshire this afternoon.

He had landed in Normandy at the age of 21 in charge of a platoon and was wounded twice before fighting his way through Holland towards Berlin, winning the Military Cross, becoming a Knight of the Garter and, eventually, Chief of Defence Staff.

But the distinguished army officer's exemplary record was tarnished in his final years by the false abuse allegations of fantasist Carl Beech, known as 'Nick'.

The veteran, who was a part of nearly every major UK military campaign from the Second World War until his retirement in 1985, passed away at his home in Crondall, Hampshire

Queen Elizabeth II and Field Marshal Edwin Bramall, Baron Bramall, in full ceremonial uniform, attending the VJ 50th anniversary parade on The Mall, London, England, Great Britain, 19 August 1995

The decorated war veteran had taken part in the Normandy landings in June 1944 and was chief of the defence staff in 1982 until 1985. He went on to have a 26-year career in the House of Lords, retiring in 2013.

Lord Bramall lived at Bulford Manor in Wiltshire during his time as head of the army with his wife Lady Bramall, who died in 2015.

He was one of many to be falsely accused of being part of a murderous Westminster VIP paedophile ring by 51-year-old fantasist Beech.

Tom Watson, the Labour deputy leader who recently announced his intention to quit, had faced intense criticism in recent months over his role in promoting the false claims of a Westminster paedophile ring made by the fantasist Carl Beech.

Beech's allegations led to a number of public figures coming under police investigation, including the former home secretary, the late Lord Brittan of Spennithorne, the former head of the armed forces, Lord Bramall, and ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor.

Prince Charles (seated, right) chats with General Sir Edwin Bramall during the Prince's visit to Cassino Lines in Hong Kong

Queen Elizabeth II talks with Field Marshall the Lord Bramall, General Officer Commanding Northern Ireland of the Royal Green Jackets and Lady Plastow, the sculptor of the bust of Lord Bramall seen to the right, 2006

Field Marshal Lord Bramall, pictured with his wife of 64 years Avril, who died before his name was cleared

After facing calls to resign he said that he was 'very, very sorry' for the way events had turned out, but stopped short of apologising.

Mr Proctor said Mr Watson 'has done his constituents a great favour' by stepping down.

On March 4, 2015, police raided the Field-Marshall's home as part of Operation Midland, and weeks later was interviewed under caution and falsely accused of abuse some 40 years earlier.

The former soldier, who was chief of the general staff during the Falklands War, was questioned twice over the alleged rape and torture of children, and at one point police even asked his daughter if he could be trusted around his grandchildren.

Police dropped their probe in 2016, a year after Bramall's wife Avril had died after suffering from Alzheimer's.

Police dropped their probe in 2016, a year after Bramall's wife had died after suffering from Alzheimer's

In the video of his police interview, Lord Bramall says: 'Please report to your superiors and say there is no evidence, there is no case to answer. Make it clear I am no longer a suspect'

Carl Beech, 51, told detectives he had been passed around parties attended by powerful men, to be sexually abused. He accused Lord Brammall - who later told the detective who interviewed him that he 'obviously believed' Beech

In July this year Carl Beech was convicted of perverting the course of justice and jailed for 18 years, and Lord Bramall was compensated by the Met Police.

After his education at Eton College Edwin Noel Westby Bramall was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the King's Royal Rifle Corps in May 1943 and took part in the June 1944 Normandy landings.

He would later become Commander-in-Chief of British forces in Hong Kong and on to Commander-in-Chief of UK Land Forces before his appointment as Chief of Defence Staff in 1982.

'I was never as badly wounded in all my time in the military as I have been by the allegations made by Nick' Lord Bramall made a statement before the trial of Carl Beech - because he was not sure that he would live long enough to see Beech convicted. In his statement, Lord Bramall said: 'Above all what really upset me is this; my record of public service speaks for itself. In service of my Queen and Country I have done all that has been required of me. I have suffered both physically and emotionally as a result and did so without regret or complaint. I thought I could hurt no more. 'I can honestly say however I was never as badly wounded in all my time in the military as I have been by the allegations made by Nick that formed the basis of Operation Midland.' He said he was at home with his wife when the Met executed their search warrant on March 4, 2015. Lord Bramall said: 'My wife at that time was bed-bound as she suffered Alzheimer's Disease. When the police first arrived I genuinely had no idea why they were there and welcomed them with the words "How very nice to see you".' He added: 'The police proceeded to search my house resulting in us having to move my wife from room to room in her bed while they searched our home. 'My wife continually asked me what was going on and what I had done. It was very difficult to explain to her what was going on due to the paucity of the information I had been given. 'It is important that the court is aware that I live in a very small and quiet village. 'The Metropolitan Police turning up 20-handed to search someone's home was bound to attract attention especially when some of those officers went for lunch in the only village pub. 'Needless to say the fact of the search and the intervention of the police's own media department meant I was almost immediately the subject of national press speculation.' He wrote: 'The impact of the allegations was compounded by the Metropolitan Police Service automatically accepting Nick's totally uncorroborated allegations at their face value and then describing them as ''credible and true''. 'One of the considerable effects of giving such weight to Nick's allegations was to essentially reverse the burden of proof, encouraging the press and wider public to speculate on my guilt. 'Nick made these devastating and monstrous allegations against me while protected by a cloak of anonymity. 'Meanwhile everything about me from my character, my reputation and record of public service was impugned in the court of public opinion.' He acknowledged that the Metropolitan Police had apologised to him but added: 'Mud sticks.' Advertisement

The ex-head of the Armed Forces reacted furiously when he was questioned by police over 'preposterous' claims made by fantasist Carl Beech that he was a paedophile.

At times, Field Marshal Lord Bramall, then 91, banged on a table as a junior Scotland Yard detective grilled him for 100 minutes over a series of historic child sex claims made by former nurse and school governor Beech.

These included allegations made by Beech that he had spiders tipped over him by his abusers and that Lord Bramall forced him to eat his own vomit after making him perform a sex act.

When the D-Day hero was asked about sex orgies in swimming pools and whether he could swim, he snapped to Detective Constable Gavin Sealey: 'I landed at Normandy and I jolly nearly had to swim.'

Police spent 16 months and more than £2 million investigating his claims against Lord Bramall, former PM Edward Heath, former Home Secretary Leon Brittan, ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor and various former security services chiefs before closing the inquiry without any arrests or charges.

Lord Bramall had risen to be Chief of the General Staff – the top Army post – and then Chief of the Defence Staff, the officer commanding the combined forces of the Army, Navy and RAF.

Jurors at the trial of Carl Beech were told the war hero was 'in very poor health' and unable to attend court and give evidence.

A film showed him being interviewed under caution by DC Sealey. Repeatedly denying ever being involved in child abuse, he told the officer in a series of sharp exchanges: 'I am absolutely astonished, amazed and bemused.

'I find it incredible that anybody should believe that someone of my career standing, integrity, should be capable of any of these things, including things like torture. Unbelievable.'

Of the allegations themselves, he said: 'This thing is so preposterous, it is so very difficult to understand how it could possibly have been made up other than by someone who specialises in sci-fi fiction.'

He became frustrated that Beech had been unable to give specific times and places for when and where he claimed the abuse had happened. DC Sealey said the police had to 'make allowances' for that as Beech had been a young boy.

Lord Bramall slapped his hand on the table as he replied: 'I make no allowances, I will not make any allowance for it, I think it is absolutely monstrous.'

His wife, whom he married in 1949, died before detectives from Operation Midland announced in January 2016 that they were not proceeding with the case against him.

In a second police interview in his home, soon after his wife's death, he was reduced to pleading with the police to clear his name swiftly. He told them: 'It is really awful for someone in my position to have had this damage done by what has gone to press and the web net.

'Please report to your superiors and say there is no evidence, there is no case to answer. Make it clear I am no longer a suspect, no longer under investigation. Otherwise my reputation is still being damaged on Google and that is not fair after my record and at my time of life.

General Sir Edwin Bramall (left), Commander-in-Chief of United Kingdom Land Forces, inspecting guards of honour at a reunion ceremony in Shek Kong

Supportive: Nicolas with his parents Edwin and Avril Bramall — whose lives were broken apart by the false claims

'I ask you to clear this matter up and take me out of this investigation as soon as you possibly can.

'It is a very painful experience to have to go through at my age of 91 and having now just lost my wife.'

In that same interview at his home, he asked the police what corroboration there had been for Beech's claims before they searched the house in March 2015.

Tributes paid to officer whose exemplary record was falsely tarnished in his final years Following reports of Lord Bramall's death today, former defence minister Tobias Ellwood paid tribute on Twitter. He wrote: 'An inspirational leader, fellow Green Jacket and mentor who landed on the Normandy beaches, received an MC in Holland a year later, served in our Special Forces, commanded the British Army and then the entire Armed Forces.' Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said: 'I'm very sad indeed to hear of the death of Lord Bramall. I met him recently to apologise personally for the great damage the Metropolitan Police investigation into Carl Beech's false allegations has had on him and his family. 'I was struck by his selflessness and generosity in the issues he wanted to discuss, focusing on a desire to ensure the lessons from Operation Midland had been learnt by the Met. It was very humbling to be in his company and hear first hand his experience. 'He was a great man, a brilliant soldier and leader, and much loved family man. He was a true gentleman and will be hugely missed. 'In his memory, and on behalf of all those affected by the mistakes we made in Operation Midland, we are committed to continuing to embed the learning from both the reports by Sir Richard Henriques and the Independent Office of Police Conduct.' Advertisement

Earlier this year Field Marshal Lord Bramall's son Nicolas said his father had put on 'a very brave face', but his level of suffering should not be 'underestimated'.

'Look, I don't want to make out Dad's a shrinking violet. He's not,' Nicolas said.

'I find it mind-boggling the police could have got it so wrong,' he added. 'They took the word of a complete fantasist and threw Dad — a man who's been a wonderful servant to this country — to the wolves without a single piece of evidence.

'I think this has affected him more the longer it's gone on. The very fact you've been so publicly accused of paedophilia, rape and torture when it's absolute rubbish is enough to finish anybody, isn't it? The trial has been particularly hard for him.'

'Our concern was that this might not be sorted before he dies. It has dragged on and on,' Nicolas said.

Lord Bramall was having breakfast with his frail wife Avril, who was suffering with Alzheimer's disease, at his home in Hampshire when police knocked on his door on March 4, 2015.

More than 20 officers in white overalls spent ten hours examining every inch of the house, leaving with an old visitors' book and copies of two speeches Lord Bramall had made, one to Sandhurst cadets and another about a fellow Army commander.

'They went behind every picture in the house — every picture. They ripped the place apart,' Nicolas said. 'There was a busload of police in white suits. My parents live right in the middle of the village. They weren't being subtle.

'Most of the officers went down the pub for lunch and it wasn't long before the local paper got onto Dad.

'Hogan-Howe [Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe who was Met Commissioner at the time] actually came down to see Dad twice. He said from very early on he'd never really believed Dad had been involved, but the police were under such pressure, after the Jimmy Savile scandal, to show no-one was above the law.

'That was the key to this: it doesn't matter who they are or what they've achieved, we'll get them. They were absolutely seduced by the idea that they had a top-level paedophile ring.'

Dwin, the Eton Old Boy who enlisted straight from school took part in D-Day aged 21 and before rising to lead Britain’s Armed Forces

Lord Bramall, as a lieutenant, receiving his Military Cross for gallantry in the field from Field Marshall Montgomery in 1945

Edwin Noel Westby Bramall was born in Rusthall, Kent, in 1923. His father was an artillery officer in the First World War - and would serve again in World War Two, living off proceeds from his family’s Egyptian cotton business in between.

Edwin, known as 'Dwin' to his friends, attended Elstree School in Hertfordshire and then Eton College, where he excelled in rugby and cricket.

He enlisted in the King's Royal Rifle Corps, 60th Rifles aged 18 and was commissioned as an officer in 1943, one year before he would storm Juno beach in the Normandy landings, commanding a motor battalion platoon with half-tracks, providing infantry support for tank regiments.

He was wounded in the thigh near Caen and was then evacuated back to Britain - and would return to the battlefield five weeks later, the Times reported.

Bramall was wounded in the shoulder, spent three days in a field hospital and was back in action again.

He went on to lead a reconnaissance patrol into a mine-laden wooded area and ran into a German outpost on October 20, 1944, where he wounded two Germans, took one prisoner and made seven others flee before coming back with information about German positions.

Bramall would be awarded the Military Cross by Field Marshall Montgomery.

As the war in Europe came to a close he qualified as a parachutist and spent a year administering occupied Japan - which had surrendered before he saw active service there.

He turned down a spot at Christ Church College, Oxford, instead opting to joing the Military Operations Directorate at the War Office.

He met Avril Vernon, the daughter of a brigadier-general, in London, and the pair married in Winchester Cathedral in 1949. The couple had two children - Sara and Nicolas.

He met Avril Vernon, the daughter of a brigadier-general, in London, and the pair married in Winchester Cathedral in 1949

Bramall would pass into the Staff College at Camberley, the youngest man in his year - aged just 29 - in 1952. He was then posted to Egypt and Libya where he would lead a 650-mile expedition across the Great Sand Sea to Kufra and returned to Camberley an instructor.

He was chosen by then chief of defence staff Lord Mountbatten to merge the army, navy and air force ministries into the single Ministry of Defence, and was awarded an OBE for his efforts.

He left Whitehall as commander of 2nd Green Jackets for service in Borneo - where Indonesia's President Sukarno had been ordering attacks into British protectorates of North Borneo and Sarawak - and served two four-month tours in the jungle.

In 1972 he was appointed general officer commanding 1st Armoured Division in West Germany as a major-general. Two years later he would be knighted.

Bramall was then made commander of British Forces in Hong Kong, and in 1976 returned to Britain where he was made a four-star general and commander-in-chief of UK Land Forces.

After his promotion to vice-chief of defence staff (personnel and logistics) in 1978, raising the pay of servicemen became one of his top priorities to put a halt to an exodus that threatened British military integrity.

It did not take long for Bramall to be appointed chief of the general staff - the post he occupied when Argentina invaded the Falklands in 1982.

The invasion was repelled and Bramall was made a field marshal and chief of the defence staff, and would eventually retire from the army in 1985.