Former corporal Allan served in the Gulf and Bosnia. He is

A TRAUMATISED war hero who tried to throw himself under a train has transformed his life by becoming a mental health nurse.

Former Scots Guardsman John Templeton has fought back from the depths of despair to launch a successful career helping his old comrades.

John – who suffered posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after serving in Iraq, had a mental breakdown and ended up sleeping on the streets – has become the poster boy for a new scheme to help struggling veterans.

After leaving the Scots Guards, John hit the bottle and even tried to take his own life but was stopped by police before he threw himself under a train.

The 50-year-old said: “In Iraq, I witnessed terrible atrocities. I saw the aftermath of civilians, including children, being massacred just because they were Kurdish. I saw villages wiped out and mass graves. Those images have stayed with me.

“I’ve also struggled to cope with the death of a close friend who took his own life during a tour of Northern Ireland. He was only a teenager but the whole nature of the job was just to get on with it.”

Now John has graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University and hopes to inspire others. It was during PTSD treatment with Combat Stress Scotland he found out he had many transferable skills he could use in civilian life.

John said: “At the end of a six-week treatment programme, I was asked by one of the occupational therapists what my plans were. We spoke about nursing and it was there and then I decided I was going to be a mental health nurse.” THE number of Army homes left empty in Scotland has soared from 690 to 1136 in the past six years – prompting calls for them to be given to homeless veterans. SNP MSP Gordon MacDonald has written to Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, saying: “The MoD have a duty of care to help those who have served – it is time to bring this vacant housing into use for the public good.”