George Stewart of Scone, who is believed to have fired the final shots of the Italian campaign in the Second World War, has died aged 103.
Just two days before VE Day, his engagement with German troops near Torbole is thought to have been the last firefight of the campaign.
George, a captain in the Royal Artillery, had previously been awarded the Military Cross for his actions in the March 1945 Allied push over the River Po.
By this time the 25-year-old had already been a veteran of the Battles of El Alamein in North Africa and Anzio in Italy, as the Allies swept north through the country.
In later life, George became world senior tennis champion aged 85 after taking up the game when he retired, and skied well into his second century.
George Girdwood Stewart was born in Glasgow on December 12 1919, the son of Herbert Alexander Stewart, a chartered electrical engineer, and his wife Janetta Girdwood.
Education
He was educated at Kelvinside Academy where his father and two uncles were educated, as, in due course, was his son.
After a childhood much affected by illness, he spent a year at Glasgow University studying agricultural science before being called up for military service in 1940.
Throughout the war years, his spirits were sustained by letters from home from a girlfriend, artist Joan Eardley, but they parted ways at the end of the conflict.
In an interview with The Courier in 2020, George recalled the final shots of the war in Italy. “We were advancing north along the road on the east side of Lake Garda,” he said. “It had many tunnels, and because some of these had been blocked by explosions, we had to take to the high ground above.
“We had lost touch with the enemy, who were retreating towards the Brenner Pass, when I saw flashes from a gun firing from the entrance to a tunnel south of Torbole, at the north-east corner of the lake.
“I engaged the target and it stopped firing. I like to think those rounds I fired
off were probably the very last of the Italian campaign.”
George returned to Scotland to continue his academic studies and later joined the Forestry Commission.
He continued to serve in the Royal Artillery in 278th Field Regiment TA and rose to become a Lieutenant Colonel.
Not long after the war ended, George met Jean Murray. They married in 1950 and had two of a family, Alan, who skied for Britain at the 1976 and 1980 Winter Olympics, and Sally.
He played a major part in the Forestry Commission’s response to the storm of 1968 that devastated woodlands and retired in 1979.
Moment to shine
George went on to serve as chairman of the Scottish Wildlife Trust and on the council of the National Trust for Scotland. He also carried the Olympic torch when it passed through Tayside and Fife on its journey to London in 2012.
When he turned 100, George became the country’s oldest skier and joined son Alan and his family in the French Pyrenees in December 2019, a few months before lockdown. He had learnt to ski in Italy at the end of the war with the help of an Italian PoW and went on to serve as president of the Scottish Ski Club.
The following year, George was a recipient of Maundy Money from the Queen – by post because of the pandemic – for his work in supporting his church and community.
At the time he said: “I have a close association with my local church which is Scone and St Martins Parish Church, and it plays a notable part in the activities of the community.
“I’m 101 so there’s a limited amount I can do but I support the church’s activities.
“I learnt to ski after the war in Italy where I was stationed, and I’ve skied virtually every year since then, both in Scotland and the Alps.”
Maudeen MacDougall, minister at Scone and St Martins, said: “George Stewart was a regular attender at the church to the end, a fatherly and brotherly influence on us all, a fantastic and youthful example with a heart for everyone.
“His life was based on that amazing foundation, the love and light, hope and joy of Jesus Christ.”
You can read the family’s announcement here.
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