More than 500 people and a military guard of honour attended the funeral of former paratrooper David Melvin of Dundee.
David, who died aged 73, served in the 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment in Northern Ireland and overseas.
He then had a long career at publisher DC Thomson, served in the 15th Parachute Regiment (Volunteers) in St Andrews, then with 23 SAS (Reserve) at Invergowrie.
David came from a family with a rich military heritage. His great uncle, Charles Melvin of the 2nd Battalion, The Black Watch, was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1917 for valour at the Battle of Istabulat in what is now Iraq.
The Kirriemuir man took an Ottoman trench single-handedly with a bayonet in his hand while under fire, taking nine prisoners and killing four combatants.
David Nicoll Melvin was born in Dundee on August 25 1950. His parents were Nicoll and Jemima Melvin and David grew up on farms around Angus before the family moved to Dundee.
Nicoll drove a lorry for Dundee Plant and Jemima worked in the jute mills before becoming a college cleaner. David had five younger brothers; George, Ian, Allan, Frank and Alistair.
He was educated at primary schools around Angus and then at Logie Secondary School in Dundee.
David joined the army cadets in 1966 and was accepted into the Parachute Regiment in 1968.
Overseas service
His training took place at Aldershot before postings to Northern Ireland, Malta, Ghana and Cyprus.
In 1972, the year he left full-time military service, he married Lorraine and had a son, Scott, who became a chef who worked around the world and has now settled in South Africa.
David then began work at DC Thomson, originally in gravure despatch in Douglas Street then Kingsway before becoming a shift supervisor for temporary staff.
In 1983, he married Deirdre and their daughter, Kirsty, was born in 1985. She has two children, Leah and Kevin, and lives in the Dundee area with partner, Ross.
It was in the late 1980s he joined the Parachute Regiment reserves followed by a move to the SAS. In the mid 1990s he became involved with Dundee and Angus Army Cadets and rose from sergeant to colour sergeant, then sergeant major.
David’s final role was as chairman of Tayside Branch of the Parachute Regiment Association.
In his younger days, David played football for Invergowrie and Kingsway and Bank Street Athletic.
He kept fit with long-distance running, completed a few marathons and loved skiing in Europe, the US and Canada.
David, a Freemason attached to Lodge 967, retired in 2009 after developing an autoimmune disease.
You can read the family’s announcement here.
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