Brass Commando Knife & Badge
Brora Heritage Centre
After taking part in many Commando raids, when in North Africa in 1941, Jim volunteered for fellow Commando, Captain David Stirling’s even more elite unit, which was the forerunner of the Special Air Service, the famous SAS. In the beginning, the new fighting force consisted of just of 60 men and four officers. Targeting enemy airbases, miles behind enemy lines, the SAS units carried out many daring but successful raids.
After the African campaign, Jim joined the 1st Airborne Division and worked with the French Resistance. He then served in Norway with the 1st Airborne to help secure its liberation of Norway in May 1945.
Jim was demobbed after the war and, for a short while earned a living as a ‘wall of death’ motor-cycle rider. He later retired back in Brora.