A 95-year-old Second World War veteran was yesterday honoured with a commemorative medal to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the end of the war.
A piper played as former Royal Scots soldier John Kay, who lives in the Raigmore area of Inverness, was given the award by Legion Scotland’s Veterans Community Service, supported by the Scottish Government.
Emily Clark, veterans community support co-ordinator for Legion Scotland, said: “Mr Kay is a veteran of the war in Europe and also the Far East so I was very privileged to present him with this commemorative medallion.”
Mr Kay, who served in the Royal Scots, was in Hamburg on VE Day, May 8 1945, as a teenage soldier and said he ‘never saw such destruction’.
Prior to entering Hamburg they saw skeletal people in striped pyjamas, heading in all directions, trying to make their way home after the liberation of Belsen Concentration camp.
He said that as young soldiers trying to give people food they were shocked to learn that doing so could be dangerous for them.
He said he will “never forget” the sight of those poor people.
Mr Kay returned to Scotland and married his sweetheart, Mhairi, a 19-year-old Wren from Orkney, then was sent to the Far East.
He was responsible for gathering ‘stragglers’ of the Japanese forces in Burma after VJ Day, who were still hiding in the jungle.
He then went to North Africa in 1947 and remembers being stunned by the sight of the Suez Canal.
Mr Kay says that from all his medals and awards in his life, the one which gives him the most joy is the little gold pin he was given when he donated his 50th pint of blood.
His late wife had needed a transfusion after battling tuberculosis and even though his blood didn’t match, Mr Kay went on to donate 50 pints of his own blood to strangers to help them survive their own illnesses.
Mr Kay remained in the Royal Scots as a musician until 1956, as a percussionist.
Emily Clark said: “Legion Scotland’s Veterans Community Support Service operates across Scotland – including Highland and Islands – and our aim is to support older veterans in the community.
“In that capacity we have been presenting commemorative medals to veterans of WW2, as this is the 75 anniversary year of the end of the war.”
