This remarkable gentleman is called Alfred Anderson. During the first World War he served with the 5th Battalion The Black Watch from the tender age of 18. Living to the grand old age of 109, he was the last man to pass who served during the 1914 Christmas Day Truce. In October 1914 he left his home in Newtyle, Angus and with school friends embarked on the long journey to the frontline via a train from Dundee to Southampton and a ferry to Le Harve. Although his unit was billeted at the time, he still at the age of 108 had vivid memories of that iconic Christmas Day, recalling the following during a newspaper interview in 2004.

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'I remember the silence, the eerie sound of silence,' he said. 'Only the guards were on duty. We all went outside the farm buildings and just stood listening. And, of course, thinking of people back home. All I'd heard for two months in the trenches was the hissing, cracking and whining of bullets in flight, machinegun fire and distant German voices. But there was a dead silence that morning, right across the land as far as you could see. We shouted "Merry Christmas", even though nobody felt merry. The silence ended early in the afternoon and the killing started again. It was a short peace in a terrible war.'

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Up until his death he treasured the brass box gifted to all serving troops at Christmas 1914 from Princess Mary, embossed with her image and filled with cigarettes.

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'I'd no use for the cigarettes so I gave them to my friends,' he recalled. 'A lot of the lads thought the box was worth nothing, but I said someone's bound to have put a lot of thought into it. Some of the boys had Christmas presents from home anyway, but mine didn't arrive on time.'

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Even decades later Alfred harbours painful memories about the war.

 

'I saw so much horror,' he said despondently while shaking his head. 'I lost so many friends’ he stated with deep regret. One particular incident that still resonates left him with what he called a 'sore heart'. It occurred when while on leave he visited the family of a dead friend to offer his condolences. Although knowing them well he remembers receiving a cool reception. 'I asked if they were going to ask me in and they said no. When I asked why, they just said, "Because you're here and he's not". That was awful. He's one of the lads I miss most.’

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In 1998 Alfred Anderson received France’s highest military honour – the Légion d'Honneur for his services during the First World War, but 90 years on it was still painfully evident that the experience still haunted him.

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 'I'll give Christmas Day 1914 a brief thought, as I do every year and I'll think about all my friends who never made it home. But it's too sad to think too much about it. Far too sad,' he said in 2004, bowing his head to hide tear-filled eyes. With 6 children Alfred has lived a full life that’s spanned 3 centuries, but his painful recollections go to prove that war offers no real escape.

Alfred Anderson; born June 25, 1896, died November 21, 2005.