Remembering men of the 51st

Sir, – I was very interested in Ken Guild’s letter (November 7) regarding recognition for the 51st as my father was part of the 51st Highland Division trapped at St Valery in 1940.

He was conscripted to the Gordon Highlanders at the outbreak of war in 1939 and trained at Bridge of Don Barracks in Aberdeen before joining the 1st Battalion in France in 1940.

Following the order to surrender at St Valery, my father and his comrades were marched to Rouen and then onwards to Luxembourg.

Several months later, on January 30 1941, the men finally arrived at their ultimate destination amid deep snow – Stalag 344 at Lamsdorf.

My father had to work in a cement factory starting at 6am and working until late afternoon surviving on four slices of bread and weak vegetable soup.

After two years working in the factory, he was transferred to a sugar beet factory where he worked with two oxen to haul carts.

At the end of the war in 1945, my father was loaded on to a cattle truck containing 45 prisoners and after about nine days travelling in cramped conditions, the prisoners were free and returned home.

Jim Murray.

40 Patrick Allan Fraser Street, Arbroath.

Ignored, marginalised, treated with contempt – these are all phrases which have been used to characterise the engagement of politics in Scotland in relation to Westminster