James Gourlay, MC (Bar), was a soldier of great distinction. Born in Greenock in 1919 he attended both Glasgow and Edinburgh Academies where he learned the rifle skills that would serve both him and his country well.

As captain of the shooting eight he represented his school at Bisley and other prestigious events. With the Second World War he was commissioned initially into the Royal Scots and then the Fourth Parachute Battalion, where he became a Major in the Second Independent Parachute Brigade. Married to Sybil Edwards in 1941, over the next few years the couple were to see very little of each other.

Mr Gourlay's Brigade was formed to be deployed independently, in areas away from the main theatres of war, in vital yet smaller battles, such as the fighting that led up to the fierce battle of Monte Cassino where he won his Military Cross.

Later he was dropped into the South of France for Operation Dragoon. As the British Expeditionary Force was breaking out from Normandy, Lieutenant Gourlay, was at the other end of the country, fighting to liberate France from the south.

By October of 1944, Churchill had become concerned that, as the Germans retreated from Athens, the Greek communist guerrillas would descend from the mountains, making Greece communist and a Russian ally.

Mr Gourlay was now a Major and commander of C company. It was he and his men who landed in Greece first, in winds too high for safe parachuting. They went on to fight the biggest battle with the German rearguard to take place in Greece, at Kozana.

The town is on a hill, and the attack, led by Mr Gourlay, started by climbing a sheer rock face without ropes or harnesses. Mr Gourlay, still only 26, won the bar for his MC.

After the war he served in Palastine, Malaya, and on the Scottish Command, rising to become the second in Command of the Airborne Forces Depot.

He also became the first Britain to command an American company since 1775 when on an exchange with the 82nd airborne division. His first wife died in 1974 and he remarried, to Barbera Charles, in 1977.

After 17 years in the army he left and became a chicken farmer in Dove valley, Derbyshire. Despite the success of his career, relatives say he never spoke of it. His business was successful and Mr Gourlay enjoyed hunting, becoming secretary of the Meynell Hunt. After a short spell as the PR officer of JCB he retired.

He died, aged 78, on Sunday, August 10. He is survived by his wife, Barbara, and daughter, Jane.