D-Day veteran; Born September 7, 1903; Died September 29, 2008.

John "Jock" Wilson, who has died aged 105, was Scotland's oldest war veteran and would have read Eisenhower's stirring call to arms on the eve of the D-Day landings in Normandy. "The eyes of the world are upon you," it read. "The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you."

In company with "brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other fronts" - mostly Canadians - Wilson played his part in bringing about "the destruction of the German war machine". Although older than many of his comrades - when he joined the 79th Regiment of the Royal Artillery most were half his age - he was appointed to the radio division, which meant his unit had to land with the first wave of troops at Juno Beach on June 6, 1944.

Under constant fire, he helped assemble a radio station and tower so that information could be transmitted back to HQ. The whereabouts of enemy gun emplacements and tank movements were of huge strategic importance to the deployment of the Allies' ground forces and air power.

The experience was, of course, gruelling, but Wilson endured the horror with stoic good humour, forever grateful that, however terrible his experiences, he had marched on where comrades had fallen.

"It was the noise, the screams, the bodies littering the beach and the overwhelming sense of helplessness," he recalled much later. "My driver, who was from Dundee, was killed on the beach. He was just 24." Wilson was twice wounded in the fighting across France, Belgium, the Netherlands and into Germany. He received the Military Medal (MM) for bravery at Bremerhaven.

Born in Edinburgh on September 7, 1903, Wilson's earliest memory was of going to the nearby Easter Road to see Hibs play for the first time. Buffalo Bill was also in the crowd and that evening, sometime in 1910, Wilson went to see the cowboy at the Gaiety Theatre in Kirkgate.

Thereafter, Easter Road and Hibs were a big part in Wilson's life. Alluding to his MM, he later quipped: "Well, I didn't get it for following Hibs for 90 years. That would deserve the VC." Fittingly, as the team's longest-serving supporter in 2003, Wilson found himself sitting in the directors' box at the stadium as a special guest.

He started work at the age of 14 with McNiven and Cameron's, makers of the Waverley pens, and returned to the same firm after the war. Although a member of the Territorial Army from 1921-31, Wilson was originally too old to be called up at the outbreak of war in 1939, but joined the Royal Artillery two years later, just weeks after celebrating the birth of a daughter, Joyce, with his wife, Lily.

The D-Day landings in June 1944 became - as for so many other men - the defining moment in what was to be a long and contented life. After his wife died in 1964, Wilson retired and moved from Edinburgh to Dunbar to live with Joyce and her husband, Tom. He quickly became a fixture in the life of the East Lothian town and a central figure at Remembrance Day services there and throughout Scotland. On June 6, 2004, Wilson was reckoned to be the oldest D-Day veteran to have returned to France for the emotional 60th anniversary of the Normandy landings.

The day before, Wilson had been to the French Embassy in London to receive France's most prestigious military decoration, the Legion d'Honneur. Although he did not join the parade on Arromanche beach, he watched - beaming with melancholy pride - from a wheelchair with his daughter and other veterans.

He also found himself on the front line as dignitaries were introduced to the old soldiers. On meeting the Queen for the second time that day, he joked: "You know, madam, we'll have to stop meeting like this." And with the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, he was even caustic. "The only person to go into parliament with good intentions was Guy Fawkes," the premier was told, "and he forgot his matches."

A witty, sociable person who kept up to date with current events, Wilson's 105th birthday was celebrated this month at the Probus Club in Dunbar. He was presented with a card and a bottle of malt whisky and also received a card from the Queen, presented to him by East Lothian's lord-lieutenant, Garth Morrison.

Jock Wilson died in Dunbar, a few weeks after those celebrations. His wife Lily (née Ross) predeceased him in 1964. He is survived by a daughter, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, all of whom will probably never forget his role in what Eisenhower called "this great and noble undertaking". By DAVID TORRANCE