An Andover man who became the icon of a new D-Day memorial has said “it was a real honour” to be featured around the world.

Steve Black, who now lives in France, was pictured playing the bagpipes at dawn on June 6 as the British Normandy Memorial was opened. He was then featured around the world as an enduring symbol of the monument.

“I’m so proud,” he said. “It’s a real honour. I can’t believe it went viral, it was unbelievable.

“People from all over the world got in touch with me, even from New Zealand and Australia. It’s not every day you manage to get in a newspaper, and I was in the Times, the Guardian, the Mirror and The Sun. It’s incredible!”

Steve’s family has lived in and around Andover for decades, with his grandfather, Charlie Plumb, a soldier at the Somme. His grandfather would later see American soldiers billeted with the family before they headed off to D-Day, with only one of the seven returning.

Steve himself grew up in Andover, attending Andover Boys School and undertaking his apprenticeship at Boscombe Down. He lived in town for 40 years, and still has many friends in the area, including those in the Wallops where he subsequently moved before heading to France.

He took up the bagpipes five years ago, and plays with a group of Parisians, with regular performances before Covid. Ahead of D-Day, he went to Pegasus Bridge, captured after a daring mission using gliders and now a symbol of D-Day, where he had a chance encounter with photographer Kiran Ridley.

“It’s purely by chance I bumped into the guy,” Steve said. “I had the flag on my bagpipes and he had the great idea for the photoshoot at the memorial the next morning. I didn’t even know they’d built it!”

Steve and Kiran got up before dawn to meet at the memorial, where the picture of Steve playing the bagpipes was taken. Part of his uniform includes his grandfather’s original Royal Berkshire Regiment Cap Badge.

“For the opening ceremony I played at dawn and then ended up on the front pages,” he said. “It was quite funny, I’m not even Scottish!”

He said that one of his sons had been mocking him for his appearance, but soon changed his tune.

“My son was giving me a hard time and saying it was like Dad’s Army,” Steve said, “and then in the afternoon he changed his tone when he saw me on the BBC. He apologised, and said he respected me.

“That made me cry, it was nice to hear from him.”

The British Normandy Memorial records the names of the 22,442 servicemen and women under British command who died during the D-Day landings and the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944.

Designed by British architect Liam O’Connor, the structure has been built at Ver-sur-Mer in France, overlooking Gold Beach, and cost around £30 million to build.

It was built following the work of the Normandy Memorial Trust, who brought together the UK government and other stakeholders to construct the memorial, as Britain was the only country to not have a national memorial in Normandy commemorating the names of all under its command during the Battle of Normandy and D-Day.