During the Second World War he was a platoon commander in the coup de main operation, by gliderborne troops of the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (the 52nd), on D-Day, 6 June 1944, tasked to seize Horsa Bridge and Pegasus Bridge before the main assault on the Normandy beaches began.

Henry John Sweeney was born in Blyth, Northumberland, England, on 1 June 1919, and educated at Douai School, Berkshire.

Sweeney was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers on 13 September 1941,[1] and shortly afterwards transferred to the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (OBLI), joining the 2nd (Airlanding) Battalion (the 52nd) in April 1942.

At the time the battalion was assigned to the 1st Airlanding Brigade, part of the 1st Airborne Division, and converted into a glider infantry role.

He was a platoon commander in Major John Howard's 'D' Company coup de main that captured the Caen canal and Orne river bridges during Normandy landings on 6 June 1944.

Sweeney was awarded the Military Cross (MC) for rescuing a wounded corporal of his platoon on 7 June 1944 while under heavy fire near Escoville.

He served in Operation Varsity: the air assault landing over the Rhine on 24 March 1945, and took part in the advance across Germany to the Baltic Sea.

He commanded the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry guard of honour at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953.

Guests who appeared on the programme included Katie Boyle, Richard Todd and former Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry soldiers: General Sir Antony Read, General Sir Edward Jones (British Army officer), Major Sandy Smith (British Army officer), Major John Stevenson and Jack " Bill " Bailey.