But it is not surprising if you recognise him, as Paul Windle was a dentist in Bega for 45 years.

"I don't know if it's anything special," he said of his status as the sub-branch's last veteran from the war.

"Most of the blokes who've gone before me have been active servicemen, while I did virtually all my service at the end of the piece.

"But I joined up before the war ended, I suppose a lot of soldiers never got overseas as well."

Now 93 years old, Mr Windle served as an able seaman in the navy after enlisting as the war began to end, then continued his service for about two years afterwards.

He remembers in the 1940s, Sydney was full of US servicemen and his father was a watchmaker and a jeweller who had a shop on George St in Sydney and would invite these visitors over for dinner.

He recalled going to school in June 1944, catching a tram at Lane Cove and seeing a poster proposing D-Day, the series of landings in France that began the Allied liberation of western Europe.

"I thought 'I wonder if they will do that', and sure enough that afternoon the invasion was on," he said.

Due to the conscription rules, Mr Windle and his parents were prepared for him to enter the armed forces, so in February 1945 when he was 18 he joined the navy and began training at Flinders.

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He knew the war was coming to an end because he initially tried to join the airforce, but the airforce were not taking on any new recruits, and sure enough while he was training Germany surrendered.

He joined the march through Melbourne's streets called VE Day - "Victory Europe" - and later relocated to HMAS Rushcutter in Sydney to do anti-submarine training with the technology that is the equivalent of today's sonar.

There, while he was training to become a submarine detector, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, followed by Japan's surrender and the war came to an end.

"We were a little bit sad, because we hadn't got into action yet," Mr Windle said.

"We didn't cry or anything like that, but we felt like we missed our opportunity to go to war."

After the war he worked with the navy for a time, helping to map the Queensland coastline by using sonar to watch for hazards to his ship, like reefs.

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"A lot of Australia wasn't mapped in those days, they were still using [1700s navigator] Matthew Flinders' maps," he said.

He moved to Bega in 1954, married his wife of 65 years Audrey Windle, who recently passed away, had three children and worked as a dentist in the town for over four decades.

"The Bega district is a great place to grow up and I have never regretted moving here," he said.

"Next to marrying my wife, it was probably the best thing I ever did."

Mr Windle looks back fondly on his time in the armed services, saying he did want to go to war.

"I was trained to trace submarines, wasn't I?" he said.

"I think dropping the bombs [on Nagasaki and Hiroshima] saved thousands and thousands of Allied lives, because the Japanese were ready to commit suicide to save that place.

"Who knows what would have happened if they had to invade it?"