An RAF veteran will honour members of the LGBTQ+ community in the armed forces by laying a special wreath on Remembrance Sunday. Bryan Timberlake, 91, from Watford, will be joined at the ceremony by Willi Dixon, who served in the Royal Army Pay Corps in the 1980s. Mr Timberlake said he was "very honoured" to represent people who "fought and died the same as everybody else".
"They should be recognised as much as anybody, if not more, because not only did they have to fight those battles, but had to fight their own battles as well," he said. Despite homosexuality being illegal in the 1950s, Mr Timberlake, who served in the RAF during that time, said he personally did not find it difficult to be a gay man in the services. "I don't remember one chap who said anything nasty towards me," he said.
"I did not flaunt myself about or anything like that, I just kept myself to myself. "They soon sussed me out but were quite protective of me, strangely enough." Speaking to the BBC, he said he found one incident "quite funny".
"There was a chap in the hut next to me who was particularly handsome and asked me to go to the pictures with him," he said. "[Afterwards] he took me to my hut and suddenly lunged towards me and gave me such a kiss, then suddenly, he stopped and stood back and realised what he'd done and scuttled off. "He never spoke to me again and I think he was experimenting, or had feelings for me, but was denying them.
" As part of his RAF duties, Mr Timberlake stood guard at the.