D-Day veteran Jim Glennie, 100, awarded honorary degree

Jim Glennie was accompanied by his son James and daughter Juliet

One of Scotland's last surviving veterans of the D-Day landings has been awarded an honorary degree.

Soldier Jim Glennie was just 18 when he took part in the largest military seaborne operation ever attempted.

The veteran, from Aberdeenshire, modestly puts his survival down to "sheer luck".

Mr Glennie, who turned 100 in August, was awarded the degree by the University of Aberdeen.

Jim Glennie is now 100

Mr Glennie hopes future generations will remember the sacrifices which were made in the war.

Scott Styles, senior lecturer in law at the university, read the laureation at a short ceremony in King's College Chapel.

He said Mr Glennie was one of the very last of his generation.

"We are going to move from memory in to history, when there will be nobody alive who can remember serving at D-Day as he did," he said.

"We will have books and films but it's a big difference when you go from memories of living people, to history, and that's why we wanted to mark not just his service but that of his entire generation."

Jim Glennie was a teenage soldier

When he was called up, Pte Glennie began his military service at barracks in Aberdeen.

"If you weren't fit it was hard, but if you were fit it was alright," he said.

Operation Overlord marked the start of the campaign to liberate Nazi-occupied north-west Europe.

When Allied forces began landing on the beaches of Northern France on 6 June 1944, Pte Glennie, from Turriff, was with the Gordon Highlanders.

Mr Glennie has previously told how he saw the body of a fallen soldier as he entered the water from a landing craft, but knew he must continue.

He recalled: "I remember getting into the water, my two mates couldn't swim, they stuck to me like glue.

"But the water was just up to the knees, so it was alright. This body came up with the waves. I just carried on.

"Boys were getting shot. There were shells and everything. You had to keep your heid doon (head down). You never stopped. You had to carry on."

Jim Glennie is pictured holding his 100th birthday card from the King and Queen

Amid heavy German resistance, Mr Glennie and comrades managed to advance inland.

He said they faced Germans coming at them from different angles.

"We were shooting at them and they were shooting at us," he said.

"And eventually I was shot in the arm.

"When I got captured, you had to take off your watch. My mother had given me a ring, they took off the ring. I said 'no, no' but the boy was going to punch me.

"But I was lucky, I got into the hospital."

On his 19th birthday, Mr Glennie found himself at Stalag IV-B - one of Germany's largest prisoner of war camps.

He was filling in bomb holes as part of his PoW duties when his German captors disappeared in early 1945.

After leaving, he managed to meet up with American soldiers.

He was due to deploy to Japan once Europe was liberated, but the war ended before he could go.

Returning to Turriff, Mr Glennie swapped the life of a soldier to be a welder.

He would later marry Winifred, and the couple had two children.

They were married for more than 40 years, before she died about 15 years ago.

On his birthday he also received a British Empire Medal, in recognition of his work over 30 years as a volunteer at the Gordon Highlanders Museum.