Sacrifice made by John Swinney's heroic uncle is a reminder of horrors of war

A commemoration will be held today to mark the 80th anniversary of the death of Corporal Thomas Peck Hunter, who was killed saving his comrades just over a month before the end of the Second World War

Writing in The Scotsman today, John Swinney tells the heartbreaking story of how his uncle, Thomas Peck Hunter, was killed at the age of 21, just weeks before the Second World War ended.

In a letter describing what happened near Lake Comacchio in northern Italy on April 3, 1945, Corporal Hunter’s commanding officer, Captain Bob Loudon, said: “He exposed himself in the face of heavy enemy fire and engaged some enemy machine gun posts at close range with his own Bren gun. This action drew the enemy’s fire onto him and enabled the remainder of the troop, which had been caught in the open, to take cover.”

Corporal Thomas Peck Hunter, who was killed in April 1945, and his nephew, John Swinney, First Minister of Scotland | Supplied/Press Association

The First Minister writes that his mother “remembered being called home from her work at the age of 14 to an atmosphere of unbearable and inconsolable grief in the house. She felt the loss of a loving brother who looked out for her...”

As a commemoration is held to mark the 80th anniversary of Corporal Hunter’s death, it is a reminder of the lasting grief caused by war, and the debt we can never repay to a such brave generation. Lest we forget.