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D-Day veteran dies aged 100
Summary
Albert Lamond, one of Scotland's last surviving D-Day veterans, has died at 100; he served as an 18-year-old signalman aboard HMS Rowley during the 1944 Normandy landings and later helped evacuate prisoners of war in the Pacific.
Content
Albert Lamond, one of Scotland's last surviving D-Day veterans, has died at the age of 100. He was born in Glasgow's east end and joined the Royal Navy in 1943. As an 18-year-old signalman he served aboard HMS Rowley during the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944. In 1945 he served in the Pacific and helped evacuate prisoners of war before returning to civilian life.
Key facts:
- Albert Lamond died aged 100; his family said he "never thought of himself as a hero" and that he believed he was "just doing his duty."
- He joined the Royal Navy in 1943 and was deployed aboard HMS Rowley for the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944.
- HMS Rowley acted as a defensive escort around battleship HMS Warspite during the operation, which the article reports saw an estimated 4,400 Allied troops die.
- In 1945 Lamond helped evacuate prisoners of war from remote Pacific islands and later described some rescued PoWs as "like living skeletons" who were still able to smile.
- After the war he worked on the railways and later lived at McKellar House in Renfrewshire, run by the Erskine veterans' charity; Erskine's chief executive, Ian Cumming, recalled Lamond's "cheeky patter."
Summary:
His death marks the loss of one of Scotland's remaining personal links to the Normandy landings and the Pacific campaigns. Undetermined at this time.
