Thomas Mack Hermiston, a former Dundee PE teacher and one of the last Second World War Chindits has died at the age of 103.
The Edinburgh-born Major was part of the elite special forces group who fought behind enemy lines to drive the Japanese from India and Burma during World War Two.
He returned from war service to become a highly respected figure in Dundee schools, leaving a legacy which continues in a basketball trophy which is still competed for after being widely credited with bringing the sport to the city.
Educated at Broughton School, Leith Senior School and Leith Academy, he spent much of his early life in care following his mother’s death after the birth of a younger brother.
He was fostered by an Aberdeenshire family and in 1934, aged 18, joined the Gordon Highlanders.
Mobilised to Cherbourg, France on his 23rd birthday, just five days after marrying his childhood sweetheart, Louise Rough from Aberdeenshire, he went on to help defend the Belgian border before being attached to the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry.
He was commissioned and later sailed to the Middle East on the SS Orontes prior to taking part in the Burma campaign.
The Chindit unit of which he became part of was conceived by Major-General Orde Wingate as a long-range penetration force to harass the enemy, and remains a byword for bravery.
As part of 4th Battalion Border Regiment, which made up two columns of the Chindits’ 23rd Brigade, he saw active service in Operation Thursday, disrupting communication lines behind Japanese divisions and attacking Imphal and Kohima in north-east India, near the Burmese border.
Commanding Column 34, he often led recce patrols under the constant threat of enemy ambush in some of the world’s most challenging terrain and in extreme humidity and searing temperatures.
Relying solely on air-dropped rations, the Chindits often went days without food and during monsoon season the rain rotted their clothes, with many succumbing to malaria and scrub typhus.
Almost all were hospitalised and most suffered Chindit Syndrome – a combination of two or three conditions such as malaria, dysentry and septic jungle sores.
He left the army with the rank of major in 1947 and became a PE teacher at Grove Academy in Broughty Ferry, later moving to Dundee’s Morgan Academy as head of PE.
Hugely respected by pupils, many of whom remained in touch long after leaving school, he was widely credited with bringing basketball to the city, and the regional Tom Hermiston Cup is still contested annually. He was also commanding officer of Morgan Academy’s cadet force.
At the age of 97 and after 12 weeks in traction, his tenacity saw him learn to walk again after breaking his femur and he returned to live in his own home until his death.
Mr Hermiston was predeceased by his wife, Louise in 1990 and their son, Gordon in 2013, and is survived by his daughter Zena and daughter-in-law Patricia.
