Family learns soldier died a hero in 1944

COVENTRY, England, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- The family of a British soldier has learned 65 years after his death in World War II that he sacrificed himself to save 20 French children.

The town of Annezin, France, plans to name a road after Robert Key, the Coventry Telegraph reported. While a British investigation ruled Key died showing off with a grenade, relatives now know he had always been regarded as a hero in Annezin.

Key died on Sept. 5, 1944, the day after Annezin was liberated. Townspeople say he snatched a live grenade from a child who had picked it up and it exploded before he could toss it away.

A genealogist in Key's native Coventry helped track down his surviving family at the request of the mayor of Annezin.

Margaret Crabtree of Nuneaton is Key's niece.

"We were quite stunned because nobody knew anything of the facts of his death all these years," she said. "If our grandparents had known he was a hero they might have told us more about him. I'm just sorry it was 65 years before anybody contacted us and that my dad and grandparents didn't know any of this."

The road through a housing subdivision built in the field where Key died is to be named next year during Liberation Day celebrations.

Key, 30, was a career soldier who enlisted in 1934. He was a bombardier in the Royal Artillery during the invasion of France.