FALKLANDS WAR veterans gathered at Laurence-kirk cemetery yesterday to remember the life of a “son of the Mearns” who was mortally wounded at the battle for Mount Tumbledown.

At a ceremony echoed the length and breadth of the country on the anniversary of the liberation of the Falkland Islands on June 14, 1982, former members of the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards gathered at the grave of Lance Sergeant Clark Mitchell to pay tribute to a “gentle man who led from the front” and whose bravery won him a mention in dispatches.

He was one of the 255 British servicemen along with more than 650 Argentines and three islanders who were killed in the 74-day conflict.

Former Company Sergeant Major Ian Kaye led the graveside tribute and paid respects to a “good friend and colleague” and to the others who did not return from the South Atlantic.

“Tumbledown was a formidable objective and as a section leader Clark led from the front,” he said.

“He was responsible for ensuring effective communications, motivation and leading a variety of individuals, some confident, others scared. The section commander is pivotal to the success of an action.

“Clark was very good at his job. He was a professional soldier, a quiet man who you could trust to get on with the job.

“We knew we would lose people. That we lost so few was remarkable. What Clark did was something extraordinary and arguably prevented others from losing their lives.”

He said that L/Sgt Mitchell’s family had fought to have his body brought home for burial.

“He was the first—until then if you were killed abroad you were buried abroad. The family fought for his return and this is now the norm.”

He said the family also had to fight to get his name added to the town’s war memorial.

“They should never be forgotten,” he added.

Former Scots Guard colleagues, Eric “Dusty” Smith, from Drumlithie, and Bob Gray, Insch, laid wreaths at the grave on behalf of the regiment and the South Atlantic Medals Association.

With L/Sgt Mitchell’s immediate family, including his widow Theresa, attending the national service of remembrance in London, his niece Michelle Thomson and Dawn Burns, partner of his nephew, laid a family wreath at the graveside.

Ian Boyd from Bridge of Don laid a wreath at the Laurencekirk war memorial. During the service a lone piper played the lament, Crags of Tumbledown Mountain.