THE SON of a Falklands War veteran says Petersfield Remembrance Sunday Parade will be especially emotional as for the first time in years he will be there without his father.

Charles “Champagne Charlie” Cantan from Rake died on June 7, and for his son Michael, the parade will be a painful reminder of previous ones.

Michael of Petersfield said: “Dad flew Sea Harriers in the Falklands, and after he left the navy we went to the parade every year. He is missed, but my father in law, who was also in the navy will be standing in for him.”

Lieutenant Charles Cantan was born on January 11, 1956, and in April 1982 was a Sea Harrier pilot with 801 Naval Air Squadron.

On Good Friday, the squadron began embarking on the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible; three days later it left Portsmouth for the Falkland Islands.

Awarded a Royal Naval Flying Scholarship aged 16, and his pilots wings aged 20, Cantan flew 77 sorties during the ten week campaign.

The squadron deterred some 450 Argentinian air attacks on the UK beachhead at San Carlos, shooting down eight enemy aircraft for the loss of two pilots and four planes.

But his greatest test came when returning from a mission low on fuel.

In thick fog he missed the carrier, but then saw a glimmer of the ship’s searchlights, and relying on experience, he steadied his Harrier in a hover next to the glow.

With less than a minute of fuel, he descended into the fog bank, and landed virtually blind.

Asked later if he was scared, he said he was so busy, mentally and physically, that he didn’t have the spare capacity to be frightened.

During the conflict Cantan became close to Prince Andrew, a helicopter pilot on Invincible, and in 1986 he was an usher at the Prince’s wedding.

Cantan, the great-grandson of the Dame of Sark, Sibyl Hathaway, was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air.

Leaving the navy a lieutenant commander, he flew with Virgin Atlantic for 22 years.

He was also member of the Royal Aeronautical Society and the RNLI.

Cantan married Tess Gilbert in 1983 and then in 2006, Sally James, who survives him with the son and daughter of his first marriage.