The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Desert Rat hero raises dram on his 105th birthday.
Fife veteran Jimmy Sinclair receives host of well-wishes including card from family of Rommel
The oldest surviving Desert Rat raised a glass of his favourite whisky as he celebrated his 105th birthday yesterday.
Jimmy Sinclair, from Kirkcaldy, battled Nazi forces when he served as a gunner with the elite Chestnut Troop of the 7th Armoured Division in Africa during the Second World War.
He was awarded medals for his role in the siege of Tobruk, the battle of El Alamein, and assaults on Monte Cassino in Italy.
He later served for two years with the Allied Control Commission in Berlin before returning to Scotland to work as a slater.
He said he refuses to wear his medals out of solidarity for those he lost.
Despite being part of the effort to defeat Field Marshall Erwin Rommel’s troops in the Egyptian desert in 1942, Mr Sinclair went on to strike up an unlikely friendship with the Rommel family and still regularly exchanges letters with them.
He even received a birthday card from the family yesterday.
He is also a great friend of the Duchess of Cornwall, who sent him warm congratulations on his birthday.
And what better place for a former gunner to celebrate his 105th birthday than at the 105 Regiment Royal Artillery Army Reserve Centre in Kirkcaldy?
There he was presented with a 105mm cartridge case by battery commander Lee Patchell.
Mr Sinclair told him: “I handled many of those in my time at El Alamein.”
He was also given a glass quaich on behalf of Fife Council, while the region’s deputy lieutenant, Colonel Jim Kinloch, wished him a happy birthday on behalf of the Queen.
Asked the secret of a long life, Mr Sinclair quipped: “Johnnie Walker!”
He revealed he enjoys a dram a day and had been given a number of bottles for his birthday.
“You need to have a sense of humour and I like to keep upbeat,” he said.
“I just take it a day at a time.”