Turriff D-day hero Jim Glennie

One by one, the old warriors who gave so much during the Second World War are leaving us.

Yet nobody who met Jim Glennie, the Turriff-born loon who was part of the D-Day invasion of France in 1944 and almost perished during the storming of the beaches in Normandy, will ever forget this wonderful old campaigner.

Jim, who has died at the age of 100, received the Legion d’honneur and the BEM in the latter stages of his life, but never changed from the modest man who admitted he had been one of the “lucky ones” to get the chance to return home and be reunited with his loved ones.

Jim Glennie was one of the last surviving members of the conflict

He volunteered at the Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen well into his 90s and had been the regiment’s last surviving member from the conflict, which saved the world from the Nazis.

He and his colleagues had no idea what was waiting for them when they arrived in France 82 years ago, but displayed great courage to help liberate France.

As he recalled on one occasion with typical understatement: “You were scared within yourself, but you didn’t show it. You didn’t know what was going to happen – it was very dodgy, but you just had to get on with it.”

Jim and his company were ambushed by Germans while making their way towards Caen.

Several were killed or wounded, but the rest managed to take temporary cover in a roadside trench as German Panzer armoured vehicles approached.

Jim previously said: “The tank came past and it was just spraying us, but we managed to keep our heads down.

“I remember thinking, ‘I don’t like this’ and I jumped out and ran up the road to try and get them when they came round a bend.

“So I’m standing there, firing my gun and, all of a sudden, I felt shots hit me in my right arm and the gun just dropped out of my hand.”

How Jim Glennie ended up in a POW camp on his 19th birthday

It was the end of his war. After recovering in hospital, Jim was transferred along with hundreds of other POWs to Stalag IV-B in Germany.

His first day in the camp was his 19th birthday.

And though he went on to become a welder and Jim and his wife Winifred were married for more than 40 years – the couple had two children, James and Juliet, and one grandchild Erin – he helped maintain the legacy of the Gordon Highlanders, an organisation he both loved and respected.

He met a former German soldier, Karl Hunold, at the museum in 2017 and the two men, who had previously been on opposite sides, embraced each other warmly.

He said at the time: “Although we can’t speak to each other directly because of the language barrier, we can both understand each other because of what we’ve been through.”

And Mr Hunnold responded: “I hold the Gordon Highlanders in very high regard in my memory, they treated me very well.

“And I am proud to consider Jim as a friend.”

His family said Jim had been the last Gordon Highlander to land on D-Day.

Their tribute read: “He was our hero as well as a great dad, granddad and father-in-law.

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

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

‘He served his regiment with great distinction’

As he showed visitors around the museum for 30 years, after it was opened in 1997, Jim never stopped reminding them of his belief that the war against Hitler had to be fought, but he urged future generations to prevent similar conflicts in the future.

John McLeish, the chief executive of the facility on Aberdeen’s Viewfield Road, said he regarded Jim as “a hero, somebody who had served the regiment with great distinction, both during and after his military service.”

Grenville Irvine-Fortescue, the chairman of the Gordon Highlanders Association, said: “Jim was a long-standing member of the Aberdeen Branch of The Gordon Highlanders Association and for many years he was very proudly a standard bearer for the Royal British Legion.

“He was also a founding volunteer for The Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen since it opened in 1997. He loved coming to the museum and delighted in welcoming visitors. He continued to do so on most Tuesdays up until Christmas last year.

“He was awarded his British Empire Medal for his years of service as a Gordon Highlanders Museum Volunteer and also for his years as a member and Standard Bearer for the Aberdeen Branch of The Royal British Legion.

“Jim was also awarded the Honorary Degree of Master of the University at the University of Aberdeen Honorary Degree Ceremony on October 14 2025.

“So many of you will have wonderful memories of this remarkable man whose spirit and determination to live life in the fullest way continued right up until he was bedbound after a fall at Christmas.

“Even then his determination to continue never diminished. Jim just loved life and so enjoyed meeting and chatting to people from all walks.”

For so many of us, he is and will forever be an inspirational son of the north-east.

The funeral details will be confirmed in due course.

[Source: Press and Journal]