Scotland's oldest D-Day veteran dies aged 105

Published on Tuesday 30 September 2008 22:30

SCOTLAND'S oldest war veteran, who took part in the D-Day landings in Normandy, has died aged 105.

John "Jock" Wilson, described by a comrade as a "true Scottish hero", was awarded the Military Medal for bravery and the Lgion d'Honneur, France's most prestigious military decoration.

Four years ago, Mr Wilson, from Dunbar, East Lothian, who served as a frontline observer in the Royal Artillery, attended the 60th anniversary of the 1944 allied forces' landings.

Recalling the horrors of the invasion, he said: "It was the noise, the screams, the bodies littering the beach and the overwhelming sense of helplessness."

Last night, Mr Wilson's nephew, George Swanston, 84, who served in the Royal Navy, said: "His landing craft had pulled alongside my ship during an air raid. We were discharging 600 troops going down ropes on to the landing craft. I could see him as clear as anything ready to go ashore. I watched him going ashore and coming out of the landing craft."

Mr Swanston, of Leith, went on: "Then I saw them all running ashore to the shelter of the dunes. When I looked later, there was no-one left on the beach, so I knew they had all got ashore safely.

"My uncle was a fantastic person, a fantastic gentleman all his life."

On 6 June, 1944, Mr Wilson was with Canadian forces at Juno Beach and he fought his way through France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

Alex Marshall, the chairman of Branch 34 of the Normandy Veterans Association, said: "He was known all over the world. Someone once wrote a letter addressed 'Jock Wilson, Scotland' and it got to him. We're talking about a true Scottish hero."

Arthur Duncan, 83, from Dunbar, who knew Mr Wilson, said he was a witty, sociable person who kept up to date with current events and technology.

"A segment of Dunbar life has just gone," he said.

After the war, Mr Wilson worked in an Edinburgh printing firm before retiring to Dunbar to be near his family. He died on Monday.