A 104-year-old First World War veteran from Sussex was today expected to receive the Legion d'Honneur, France's highest honour for military bravery.

The French have decorated more than 400 British troops who served in France with the accolade.

Fred Lloyd, who served with the Royal Artillery replacing injured horses on the front lines of France, is receiving the prestigious medal.

He was located by the founder of the First World War Veterans Association, Dennis Goodwin, and was due to receive his medal in his home town of Uckfield today.

Mr Goodwin said: "Fred joined up in 1916 and wanted to serve with the Sussex Regiment but, because he is of small stature, was persuaded to join the Royal Artillery, who were short of horsemen.

"There he looked after all the horses and went to France to replenish the horses on the frontlines, riding up with three at a time on a rope. He did not go right up to the trenches but it was clearly highly dangerous."

Mr Lloyd, who almost died from meningitis shortly after enlisting, served in the Home Guard during the Second World War, after which he worked as a gardener on an estate near Uckfield.

He was contacted by Mr Goodwin soon after inquiring at his local church about the whereabouts of two wooden crosses made for his two brothers Thomas and William, who were killed in action in the Great War of 1914-18.

The churchwarden heard Mr Lloyd's story and contacted Mr Goodwin, who then alerted the French authorities.

Mr Lloyd was receiving the Legion d'Honneur from the Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex, Phyllida Stewart-Roberts, at Uckfield Civic Centre.

Mr Lloyd is only the second First World War veteran to be traced this year. Jack Baird, 106, from Manchester, was in line for the Legion d'Honneur earlier in the year but died before it could be awarded.