Wounded war veteran who lived in a cave for 30 years then vanished without a trace

gets to the cave, but he looks a lot older. We would think it’s somebody in his 70s. He looks a bit like Granpaw Broon with his long white beard and his whiskers. He really looks a lot older than he is and it suggests he must have had a very hard life.”

Jimmy lived in the cave until the outbreak of the Second World War and then he vanished.

“People have various theories,” said Louise. “Some said he must have been a German spy, but that doesn’t sound like him at all. I think maybe life in the cave was too hard and lonely and Jimmy just threw in the towel.”

Combing the death records, Louise eventually came across a man who had died aged 81, in Eastern General Hospital in Leith on January 20 1940.

“The key to it was his mother’s unusual maiden name which stuck out. He died of myocarditis which is an inflammation of the heart, caused by septic toes, which is what you would expect in an old homeless man. And he was homeless because the last address is 1 The Pleasance, Edinburgh, which is the Salvation Army Hostel.

“What happened to Jimmy is a surprisingly modern story. He came from a homeless background and ended up going back into it. It’s a sad ending for him. He didn’t get the help he needed. But it just shows us how resourceful he was.

“Perhaps there’s someone out there who hears about it and says, ‘ That’s my Uncle Jimmy’.

“He had a sister, so there is possibly more detail to find. I set out to find the end of the story, but what I have uncovered may just be the start.

“You just never know when you start researching how a story is going to unfold.”