This is a poignant piece about the Christmas cards and messages which north-east soldiers sent home to their loved ones during the Second World War. The troops are gone now, but these items show their resilience, whether fighting in Italy or incarcerated in PoW camps in the Far East. My thanks to Stewart Mitchell, Gordon Highlanders historian, for his help! #GordonHighlandersMuseum #Aberdeen #SecondWorldWar #StalagLuft #Japan https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/past-times/6903743/the-christmas-cards-sent-home-by-north-east-soldiers-in-pow-camps/

Turriff’s Jim Glennie is one of the few surviving Scots who was on the beaches of Normandy during D-Day in June 1944. He’s now 98, but is unveiling a new exhibition at the Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen on Monday. We owe these men a great deal! #DDay80 #JimGlennie #GordonHighlandersMuseum #Turriff #NormandyLandings #PoppyScotland https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/6483188/jim-glennie-surviving-d-day-veterans/

They were dismissed by some as the “D-Day dodgers”: an outrageous slur on the Gordon Highlanders who fought in the Battle of Anzio and at Monte Cassino. Now, a new book by Stewart Mitchell tells the story of these brave Scots, many of whom never came home. The victims included 19-year-old twins and a 16-year-old stretcher bearer from Aberdeen! #GordonHighlandersMuseum #Anzio #StewartMitchell #Aberdeen https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/6215644/gordon-highlanders-anzio-80-years-ago/

I’ve just been writing a piece about a new book by Stewart Mitchell on the Battle of Anzio in 1944. Plenty of north-east Gordon Highlanders died in the protracted hostilities, including 19-year-old twins and a 16-year-old stretcher bearer from Aberdeen. We just don’t learn from history, do we?! #GordonHighlandersMuseum #Aberdeen #BattleofAnzio #StewartMitchell