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On the 14th April 2001, Mum and my sister, Allison, interviewed my Grampa with regard to his experiences in the 2nd World War, and the following is his story…..

Even though Grampa was underage, he joined the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Guard. Then at the tender age of seventeen and a half he went into the Scots Guards. He was stationed at the catering unit in the south of England.

Once Grampa turned eighteen he left the Scots Guards and joined the 6th Independent Tank Brigade. These men wore a black beret rather than a cap. His division went to France, to fight, during the 5th week after the Normandy Landings in 1943. Different units were dispersed to different areas that needed them and now it was Grampa’s turn!

After arriving in France, Grampa travelled, in a Churchill Tank, through France, Belgium, Holland and Germany.

Although Grampa stayed in the same regiment he was not always in the tank with the same people.

Whilst in France Grampa was hospitalised with suspected typhoid. He had to stay in isolation for three weeks until they discovered he had dysentery. Once well he spent a while trying to find his regiment and once reunited spent the rest of the war in Plon, on the Baltic Sea.

Although not proud now, he remembers raiding houses in Munster for anything of value.

After the war finished Grampa can remember being stationed in a huge barracks that had had a camouflage net over it during the war. The camouflage was so good that bombers had not known of the barracks and they were totally intact.

Grampa came back to Hamburg. The place was totally unrecognisable as a town. There was built-up rubble on each side of the road that had once been houses.

My Grampa was seconded to be a member of the permanent staff of a Russian prisoner of war camp. He can remember that when the prisoners
were released they were not at all happy at the prospect of returning to their homeland as they feared they would be killed for being caught in the first place. As this was towards the end of the war Grampa remembers that the camp was a mixture of civilians and prisoners.

Grampa transferred to the Military Police and back into the Scots Guards as a military policeman.

When Grampa was twenty-two years old he came back to the United Kingdom and was demobbed in York. He went back to his family in Edinburgh.

Grampa says that he likes to remember all the good things that happened in the war, he remembers mainly friendships made and good times that they had.

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