Last stand of 'great generation'

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A dwindling number of veterans now represent Scottish servicemen and women's involvement in key areas of conflict during World War II.

The Russian Convoy Club Scotland and Italy Star Association North of Scotland Branch have fewer than 30 veteran members each.

The Burma Star Association closed its Scottish area branch in July.

Royal British Legion Scotland spokesman Neil Griffiths said the veterans were from "one of the greatest generations".

The scale of falling membership through old age and ill-health along with the closure of branches has emerged on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

For the next 15-16 years, there was a pilgrimage nearly every year. But for the last one we had one bus-load and the next one is down to a car-load Dr Tom Renouf51st Highland Division Association

This decade started with the disbanding of the Dunkirk Veterans' Association in June 2000 and looks set to end with the shutting down, or near closure, of other groups.

The Normandy Veterans Association will hold what is expected to be its last gathering of veterans on 13 September, ahead of an AGM in London where branches will consider the organisation's future.

Alex Marshall, chairman of branch 34 - Scotland's first Normandy association , set up to cover Fife, Lothian and the Borders - said membership had fallen markedly in the past 15 years.

From about 340 Scottish veterans 15 years ago, the branch - which now represents members from across Scotland - has just over 40.

Last month, a group of D-Day veterans performed what they believed to be their last ceremony 65 years after they landed on beaches in France.

The Highlands and Islands Normandy Veterans NVA 60 Branch have handed their colours and standard into the care of Highland Council.

Cancellation considered

Former forces personnel gathered at the Normandy Veterans Memorial in Dingwall for the event.

The Burma Star Association - set up for those who fought the war against Japan - wound up its Scottish operation earlier this summer.

An associate member in Aberdeen has agreed to go in the place of a veteran to national AGMs in London.

Membership across the UK stands at about 5,800 and a spokesman said a decision on the organisation's future could be taken within five years.

The 51st (Highland) Division Association, meanwhile, may consider cancelling its regular pilgrimage to Holland in October.

Invitations have been received from villages liberated by Scottish regiments, but the association's Dr Tom Renouf said very few would be fit to make the journey.

The division was made up of regiments such as the Cameron, Gordon and Seaforth Highlanders and Black Watch.

WAR FACTFILE Hitler invades Poland on 1 September. On 3 September 1939, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain broadcast to the nation that Britain was at war with GermanyIn 1945, the Russians reached Berlin. Hitler committed suicide and Germany surrendered on 7 MayAfter atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrenders on 14 AugustBritain's last surviving World War I veteran Harry Patch, above, died aged 111 in July this year

Many of the soldiers saw action - and were killed or captured - at St Valery-en-Caux in France while other Allied personnel were being evacuated from Dunkirk.

The associations' best attended event was in 1994 when seven bus-loads of veterans returned to sites of conflict.

Dr Renouf, who served with the Black Watch, said: "For the next 15-16 years, there was a pilgrimage nearly every year. But for the last one we had one bus-load and the next one is down to a car-load."

From having hundreds of members, the most recent meeting of the association was attended by 30 with others not fit enough to go.

Meanwhile, about eight to nine veterans from the Russian Convoy Club Scotland were expected to gather at Loch Ewe in Wester Ross this weekend.

Ships carrying weapons, ammunition and supplies to the then Soviet Union sailed from the sea loch between 1942-44.

A declining number of veterans have met each year at the loch to remember those who perished on the runs.

At the age of 81, Jock Dempster, from Dunbar, Lothian, is the youngest of the Scottish survivors.

He said from 70 club members 10 years ago, membership had dropped to 26. There was notification of a veteran passing away received last week.

Italy Star Association North of Scotland Branch now has 29 veterans.

It has about the same number of associate members - wives, children and friends of those who served during World War II - and meets in Turriff, Aberdeenshire.

WORLD WAR II FACT FILE An estimated 200,000 British troops were left behind in France after the Dunkirk evacuation. Of the stranded men from the 51st Division, 1,000 were killed, 4,000 were wounded, and 8,000 who fought until being overrun were marched into captivity 1,000 miles (1,609km) to the eastThe D-Day Landings of June-July 1944 involved about 156,000 Allied troopsThe biggest conflict in history had lasted almost six years. Some 100 million people had been militarised, and 50 million had been killed

The group regularly returns to Anzio - scene of Allied landings and fierce fighting in the first months of 1944 - for commemorative events.

President Jack Doig, from Elgin, said like other groups old age and illness has taken its toll.

Mr Doig had served with the Scottish Horse Regiment.

He said: "Of my own regiment, we are very few now.

"There are only a handful I know of - four in Aberdeen and probably two or three in Moray.

"There used to be a squadron of Scottish Horse in Elgin, another in Aberdeen and others in Perthshire and Angus."

Neil Griffiths, spokesman for the Royal British Legion Scotland, said falling membership of associations was widespread.

He said: "This was one of the greatest generations that the country has ever seen and it should be forgotten at peril.

"It is a shame as the doors close on these grand old organisations. These are people who have been to places and done things that we won't see the likes of again."

Mr Griffiths said many had gone straight from fighting and surviving at the frontline to ordinary civilian jobs at the end of the war.

And he said many had fantastic, and painful, memories of life during the war.

He recalled a story of a veteran badly wounded at the Battle of El Alamein in North Africa who went on to become a shop steward at the Dounreay nuclear plant in Caithness.

Mr Griffiths said: "He was giving an address to other workers one frosty December morning and someone shouted that he hurry up because his feet were frozen.

"The veteran, who had lost both feet at El Alamein, replied that his were fine and toasty buried in the desert somewhere."