War veteran; Born November 17, 1923; Died July 26, 2008.

War veteran;
Born November 17, 1923;
Died July 26, 2008.
John Richardson Vivers, affectionately known as Dick, was a platoon commander with 6th Battalion the King's Own Scottish Borderers (6KOSB), badly wounded near Caen during the early stages of the Normandy Campaign.

He was repatriated to the UK and after recovering from his wounds he volunteered for service in Burma with 2KOSB. The troop ship to which he was allocated arrived in Rangoon just after August 6, 1945.

Captain Vivers was appointed to the Burma Command Provost Unit which was supervising the returning British soldiers who had been prisoners of war and Japanese soldiers who were being held captive. One high-profile duty included providing the escort and close protection to the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral the Lord Mountbatten.

It was in Rangoon that Dick met his future wife, Monica Clement, who had been in Burma for some time as a nursing sister with the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service.

While Captain Vivers was in Rangoon he was critically injured in a very serious road accident. He returned to the UK by hospital ship and was transferred to the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. In the meantime, Clement had been assigned to escort the injured General Carton de Wiart VC, the Prime Minister's emissary to Chiang Kai Chek, home as his personal nurse.

Captain Vivers was discharged from hospital and informed that his life expectancy had been dramatically curtailed due to injuries received both in Normandy and Burma. Despite this knowledge, Dick and Monica were married on April 19, 1947 at St Mungo's Parish Church, Penicuik.

The next 20 years of Dick Vivers's army service was in the Royal Artillery, providing a stimulating and varied career with the emphasis on "training for war". As part of the RA Training Regiment at Oswestry to the Gold Coast (now Ghana), he took part in the handover parade to President Nkrumu. He then returned to the UK to be Adjutant of 420 (Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders) Light Regiment RA TA, in Greenock. After completing the Long Gunnery Staff Course, he was appointed as a Gunnery Instructor at the School of Artillery at Larkhill.

Becoming second-in-command of 40 Field Regiment in the British Army of the Rhine took him abroad again, and his military career culminated in command of 101 Medium Regiment Royal Artillery (Volunteers) in Northumberland.

Dick Vivers was a consummate trainer and an exceptional leader with a natural affinity with the soldiers he commanded and a real understanding of what can be achieved by teamwork.

Colonel Vivers retired from the Army in 1972 and settled near Glamis; he was appointed Financial Director of Forfar Carpets Ltd in Alyth and quickly transferred his military skills to the business sector. Dick and Monica Vivers were active members of the local Angus community and strong supporters of the ex-service associations - Borderers and Gunners.

Dick Vivers's wartime experiences made a lifelong impact on him; particularly as his life had been spared on two occasions and that he met his wife-to-be in Burma, resulting in a marriage lasting just six months short of their diamond anniversary. His determination to live life to the full meant that he surpassed the pessimistic predictions of the medical experts 60 years ago. He was a committed family man, keen on all country pursuits and an elder in the Church of Scotland since May 1949.

Monica, his beloved wife, predeceased him and he is survived by his four children Jan, Anne, Richard and Andrew.