D-Day veteran Jim Glennie, 99, still volunteering at Aberdeen military museum

One of Scotland’s last living D-Day veterans is still volunteering his services at an Aberdeen military museum.

Jim Glennie, 99, has been a star attraction as a regular helper at the Gordon Highlanders Museum for three decades and says he still loves the role.

He was just 18-years-old when he fought on the beaches of Normandy in 1944.

Eight decades on from D-Day, he’s fit and well and still volunteering his services to his community.

He told STV News: “I used to like showing people around. I’ve done it for years but I’m getting a wee bit too old now. Schools used to come in and I used to talk to them and show them things and they liked it. I also used to serve dinners here at one time with the colonel.”

Jim is one of very few World War Two veterans still alive.

As one of the famous regiments last living links to the invasion, he features in the museum’s 80th D-Day anniversary exhibition and he still vividly remembers his war time experience.

He said: “I had two mates, they couldn’t swim and they knew I couldn’t swim and they stuck to me like glue. I was shot twice in the arm, two bullets and then captured by the Germans.”

Visitors to the popular museum enjoy listening to his eyewitness accounts.

“It’s incredible, it’s spinetingling, explained Iain Macgregor, who was visiting the museum with his family.

He said: “We are walking round the exhibits and it’s interesting and then you walk smack bang into living history, and you think ‘that’s what it’s all about’. I want to hear living history from the horse’s mouth. It’s made my day. He’s a superstar and so he should be lauded.”

John McLeish of the Gordon Highlanders Museum, added: “It’s quite amazing really. Some days you have to pinch yourself ,you really have a living piece of history.

“When you see Jim as a volunteer guide and meeting our guests, particularly our young visitors, they just can’t believe they are meeting someone who was actually there.”

Soon, D-Day will pass out of living memory.

But Mr Glennie is continuing in a role just as remarkable in its own way – passing on his wartime experiences to new generations..