THE oldest surviving Gordon Highlander and veteran of the Battle of the Somme has died at the age of 103.

Mr Horace ''Jock'' Gaffron died peacefully in his sleep at the British Limbless Ex-Servicemen's Home in Crieff.

Mr Gaffron lost his leg while serving with the 4th Gordon Highlanders at the Somme in 1916 when a shell finished his military career but failed to blight his long and full life as an artist.

Colonel Bob Strachan, chairman of the Gordon Highlanders Association, said: ''It's the closing of a chapter. He was a remarkable man.''

A native of Old Aberdeen, Mr Gaffron was sent to France in May 1916 at the age of 19 to serve as a private in the Gordons.

Mr Gaffron had served just two months in the Somme when a German shell devastated his lower right leg. He was returned to Britain to recuperate and be fitted with a wooden prosthesis.

Undaunted by his handicap, and having studied as an apprentice lithographic artist before the war, he then returned to Aberdeen to rekindle his love of art.

He began to contribute drawings to the London Daily Graphic and the Aberdeen Daily Journal before moving to London and then North America.

Mr Gaffron became an artist of international repute by the 1930s when he began illustrating the covers of Good Housekeeping magazine in Britain and America.

In 1998 he was one of only four survivors from the First World War to be awarded the highest French honour, the Legion d'Honneur.

Mr Gaffron is survived by his son, Bruce, who lives in San Diego.

A service will be held at Perth Crematorium this Saturday at 10.45am.

Meanwhile, Arthur Whitlock, a retired civil servant believed to be Britain's oldest man, has died at the age of 108, his daughter said yesterday.

Mr Whitlock passed away in his sleep at his south London home.