El Alamein survivor

Born: April 30, 1920;

Died: November 30, 2016

ROBERT MacLeod, who has died aged 96, was listed as "missing, presumed killed in action" after fighting alongside Montgomery's Desert Rats in the Second Battle of El Alamein, North Africa, in 1942. His mother received the crushing telegram at her home at 6 Gayfield Square, Glasgow, and went into mourning.

It was only several days later that another of her sons, Jim, noticed that the army service number quoted in the telegram was not Robert's - 920307. It turned out that another Robert MacLeod had enlisted in the army on the same day and in the same Glasgow recruitment office and that the latter Robert MacLeod was the one missing in action. One mother's relief became another's grief.

Robert MacLeod was a radio operator with the 11th Regiment Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) of the Royal Horse Artillery during the North African campaign. Radio operator does not sound that heroic but frontline troops rely on such men and Mr MacLeod was an armed frontline fighter, losing many of his fellow radio men along the way. Ask any soldier and they will tell you their radio operators played a key role in winning the war. They were the liaison between frontline troops and their back-up, as well as calling in air strikes from the RAF to save their comrades on the ground.

In North Africa, Mr MacLeod was most often with tank units as the desert war became largely one between British and Nazi tanks. He saw many tanks destroyed, with some of his friends in them, often burnt alive. He survived the Battle of Knightsbridge, near Tobruk, in June 1942, and heavy combat at Mersa Matruh in Egypt in November of that same year. He was with E Battery at Mersa Matruh when two of his officers, Captain Stoney and Captain Laskie, were killed by enemy fire but his unit advanced to engage the enemy. Their 25-pounder guns and M7 Priest self-propelled guns proved decisive in driving the enemy back in what became known as the Second Battle for El Alamein. Apart from enemy guns, Mr MacLeod survived two serious bouts of malaria during the North African campaign. His unit had by then become part of the famous Desert Rats, a name which came about because an army commander had a jerboa, a desert rat, as a pet.

Robert MacLeod was born on April 11, 1920, at 14 Roland Street, Townhead. He attended Garnetbank Primary at 231 Renfrew Street and St George's Road Secondary School, just off Glasgow Road in Woodside. He always recalled that the area he grew up in with his brothers Alex, Jim, Donald and Hugh was a closely-knit community.

Mr MacLeod was an apprentice electrician but, with war looming, he enrolled in the Territorial Army on April 24, 1939. When the Nazis invaded Poland on September 1 that same year, he was called up as a regular soldier. He was first assigned to the General Post Office (GPO) Technical Training Group in Norwich and after a signals course became part of the British Army's 15th (Scottish) Division stationed in Norfolk.

After the war, Mr MacLeod served in Vienna for two years, helping the allies deal with Austrian and German prisoners of war. Back home, he completed his apprenticeship as an electrician with McLelland and Company and went on to work for James Scott electricians in and around Glasgow. He married Jessie Faulds in 1950, first living in Partick and later in East Kilbride. He later worked for Sunbeam Electric, the University of Strathclyde and the National Engineering Laboratory (NEL) until he retired in 1985 and moved to Huntly, Aberdeenshire.

"Dad enjoyed spending time pottering around in his shed with lots of electrical gadgets," his daughter Morag told The Herald. "He also enjoyed amateur radio, kept up with politics and current affairs and loved the cinema."

Mr MacLeod's wife Jessie died in 2009. He is survived by his daughter Morag (Jones), grandchildren Kirsten and Blair and great grandson Andrew.

PHIL DAVISON