War hero and ex-PE teacher Mack Hermiston dies

T HOM AS Mack Herm iston, a former Dundee PE teacher and one of the last Second World War Chindits, has died at the age of 103.

The Edinburgh-born major was part of the elite special forces group that fought behind enemy lines to drive the Japanese from India and Burma during the conflict.

He returned from war service to become a highly respected figure in Dundee schools, leaving a legacy which continues in a basketball trophy, which is still competed for after he was credited with bringing the sport to the city.

Educated at Broughton School, Leith Senior School and Leith Academy, Mr Hermiston spent much of his early life in care following his mother’s death after the birth of a younger brother.

He was fostered by an Aberdeenshire family and in 1934, aged 18, j oined

Highlanders.

Mobilised to Cherbourg, France, on his 23rd birthday, just five days after marrying his childhood sweetheart, Louise Rough from Aberdeenshire, he went on to help defend the Belgian border before being attached to the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry.

As part of 4th Battalion Border Regiment, which made up two columns of the Chindits’ 23rd

the Gordon

Brigade, Mr Hermiston saw active service in Operation Thursday in the Far East.

He left the Army with the rank of major in 1947 and became a PE teacher at Grove Academy in Broughty Ferry, later moving to Morgan Academy as head of PE.

He was predeceased by his wife Louise in 1990 and their son Gordon in 2013, and is survived by his daughter Zena and daughterin-law Patricia.