Scottish war hero finally thanked in person by the Queen

Published on 06/07/2006 01:45

THE Queen was heralded by a footman opening the door of the Picture Gallery at the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The rain was heralded by a loud peal of thunder.

The annual royal garden party at the palace turned into a sodden experience for the 7,000 invited guests yesterday, as a landscape of top hats and pretty bonnets was transformed into a grey sea of umbrellas.

Yet for one guest the sunshine did not fade with the rain. Yesterday brought a 60-year wait to an end for a Scottish war hero as he was finally thanked in person by a grateful monarch.

In 1945, during the Second World War, John Thompson Love, from Edinburgh, was shot down by anti-aircraft fire while flying a glider over the German town of Hamminkeln. Rescued by advancing American troops, he was returned to Britain, treated for bullet wounds in his thigh and awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry.

Mr Love had expected to be invited to Buckingham Palace to receive his award, but instead received only a letter from King George VI. The persistence of his wife, Rene, 80, finally led to an invitation to the garden party and yesterday's introduction to the Queen in the grounds of the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

Mr Love, 82, said: "It was wonderful to speak to her. She asked what I had done during the war and I explained all that had happened. We were on, what was a successful mission called Operation Varsity [the airborne support for the US Ninth and British Second Armies' crossing of the Rhine] and unfortunately my glider was shot down and I was wounded in the leg."

Despite injuries that required four months in hospital, Mr Love recovered to become a professional football player with Hibs, Nottingham Forest, Walsall and Wrexham.

The Queen was introduced to dozens of guests as she and the Duke of Edinburgh toured the garden party for two hours. Dressed in a coat and hat of duck-egg blue and sensible black patent shoes, Her Majesty proceeded along a line of guests, followed at all times by her official bodyguard in Scotland, the Royal Company of Archers, dressed in green tartan and armed with ceremonial bows.

Earlier in the day, the celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay had checked his famous temper and held his tongue as he collected an OBE from the Queen at Holyroodhouse.

Ramsay joined 90 other recipients at the investiture ceremony in Edinburgh.

Among the other recipients was Sir William Gammell, chief executive of Cairn Energy, who received a knighthood for his services to industry in Scotland.

Singer Eddi Reader was awarded an OBE for services to music. There was an MBE for Una McLean, for services to drama; and William Chisholm, former Borders correspondent for this paper, was made an OBE.