D-Day veteran who survived PoW camp dies aged 100

One of Scotland's last surviving veterans of the D-Day landings has died aged 100.

Jim Glennie was an 18-year-old soldier when he took part in Operation Overlord - the largest air and sea invasion in history - on 6 June 1944 to liberate Europe from Hitler's Nazi regime.

His family described the veteran, from Turriff in Aberdeenshire, as "a hero".

Glennie, who celebrated his 100th birthday in August last year, had previously said he put his survival down to "sheer luck".

He had told BBC Scotland that he saw the body of a fallen soldier as he entered the water from a landing craft but knew he had to carry on.

A week later Glennie was injured and captured, eventually arriving in a prisoner of war camp on what was his 19th birthday.

Pte Glennie began his military service at the Bridge of Don Barracks in Aberdeen.

When Allied forces began landing on the beaches of Northern France on 6 June 1944, he was with the Gordon Highlanders.

Amid heavy German resistance, Glennie and his comrades managed to advance inland.

Eventually he was shot in the arm and taken prisoner.

Glennie ended up at Stalag IV-B, one of Germany's largest prisoner of war camps, where he said food was scarce and they were always hungry.

He was filling bomb holes as part of his prisoner duties when his German captors vanished in early 1945.

The camp was liberated and he made his way to American forces before being taken home to his family.

Once Europe was liberated, Glennie was due to deploy to Japan but the war ended before he was sent.

He went on to became a welder. He and his wife Winifred were married for more than 40 years before her death about 15 years ago. The couple had two children and one grandchild.

A portrait of Glennie now hangs in the Gordon Highlanders Museum, where the veteran volunteered for 30 years.

On his 100th birthday he received a British Empire Medal to recognise his volunteering.

The museum celebrates the story of the British army regiment, which was originally raised by the 5th Duke of Gordon in 1784.

In a statement, his family said Glennie had been the last Gordon Highlander to land on D-Day.

"He was our hero as well as a great dad, granddad and father-in-law," the tribute read.

"There is a hole in our life now without him.

"He is finally getting to be with our mum again after so long apart."

John McLeish, chief executive of the Gordon Highlanders Museum, said Glennie was a popular man who would be much missed by museum volunteers.

He said: "He gave his life to not only this museum, but to the Gordon Highlanders and to the Royal British Legion.

"He was a very active man and volunteering here right up to age 100 is quite an achievement.

"He was very generous with his time also and he always had time to speak with visitors who were always in awe when they met a D-Day veteran."

Asked about his favourite memory of Glennie, McLeish said one moment immediately came to mind.

"We were very lucky that His Majesty the King visited us here at the museum in January 2025," he said.

"For Jim that wasn't the first time that he met His Majesty, but I will never ever forget him meeting the King by saying 'long time no see'.

"An absolute Jim classic that none of us will ever forget."