Scottish D-Day veteran Jim Glennie was given a “very moving” farewell on the day of his funeral by the regimental museum where he volunteered for decades.
Mr Glennie, who died on July 7 at the age of 100, was a well-known face at the Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen – having volunteered there since 1997.
Ahead of his funeral service, his family and colleagues felt it would be appropriate for him leave the museum one last time.
Mr Glennie was just 18 when he landed on Sword Beach as part of the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944, when thousands of Allied servicemen stormed five beaches in Nazi-occupied France.
He was later badly wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans, but survived the war and returned home to Turriff in Aberdeenshire.
On Monday, flags flew at half-mast at the Gordon Highlanders Museum as the coffin carrying Mr Glennie arrived in a hearse, while a bagpiper played the regimental marching music.
Museum staff and others stood to pay tribute to the veteran as he left.
John McLeish, chief executive of the museum, said: “We and Jim’s family felt it would be appropriate for Jim to leave the museum one final time.
“It was really very moving.”
A celebration of Mr Glennie’s life was held in Kaimhill chapel in Aberdeen, where Gordon Highlanders veterans lined the route to the church inside the grounds.
The centenarian was piped into the chapel to the Flowers of the Forest before Major Grenville Irvine-Fortescue, chairman of the Gordon Highlanders Association, read a tribute to him at the service.
Mr McLeish said: “It was a lovely send-off.”
Mr Glennie’s son James Glennie Junior said earlier: “As far as the family is concerned he’s our hero. He’s our family hero.
“The last Gordon Highlander who landed on the beaches on D-Day, shot twice, captured, prisoner of war, lots of adventures before he got home.”
Mr Glennie fought his way off Sword Beach on D-Day but was badly wounded on June 20, when his unit ran into the 21st Panzer Regiment.
He was taken prisoner and treated in a German field hospital in a ward alongside German patients, who called him Scottie and gave him food and cigarettes.
On his 19th birthday, Mr Glennie was transferred to camp Stalag IV-B, near Muhlberg.
He was later moved to Leipzig, where he was forced to work filling bomb craters, and was finally liberated by American troops in April 1945.
After his return to the UK, Mr Glennie was given eight weeks leave before beginning preparations for deployment to Japan – but the war ended before he could be sent out.
Mr Glennie returned home to Turriff, where he became a welder.
He married Winifred (nee Johnston), in April 1953, and they remained together for nearly 60 years until her death in February 2012. They had two children and a granddaughter.
France awarded Mr Glennie the Legion d’Honneur, and he was awarded the British Empire Medal in last year’s King’s Honours list.
He was presented with the medal during his 100th birthday celebrations at the Gordon Highlanders Museum.
He met the King when he toured the regimental museum in January 2025, and Charles praised Mr Glennie as a “great example to us all”.
Upon seeing the King at the museum, Mr Glennie greeted him cheerfully and said “long time no see.”
