By Monica Gibson

JAMES Pyke never had any plans to be a soldier.

He trained as an engineer but, at the age of 18, the law changed so that everyone had to serve two years in the army.

If they didn’t, they would join the Territorial Army instead.

James reminisced: “I said to myself ‘no way I’m going to be in the army’.

“I had to spend two nights a week with the TA. That seemed bad enough after working all week.

“That went on for about one year and then the war started.”

James was in 238 Paisley Company and spent six years in service before the Second World War came to an end.

This included taking part in the famous operation to rescue troops from Dunkirk.

One of his tasks was to blow up bridges to prevent enemy forces passing through.

James said: “People often talk about being in Dunkirk but I think the road to Dunkirk was worse.

“We set everything up and we just ran. A lot of the time it was seconds that made the difference.

“We blew up every bridge across Belgium. On the way there, the Belgians were cheering us and throwing chocolate cake.

“On the way back, it was quite different.

“At the end, we were on the beaches, so we were last to leave.

“Watching all the other boys being put on the ships was hard.

“I am quite convinced none of 238 made it back. I would love to know. It would be a miracle if any of them were still around but miracles do happen.”

James also recalls spending his 21st birthday in Paris during the war.

He said: “We went out and had dinner - and what did we have, egg and chips. It was all we could afford at the time but we had a laugh.”

James and his wife Elizabeth went on to have four children and many more grandchildren but things could have been a lot different if a chance encounter had not brought them together.

He said: “I came home after the war and there was some family in Barrhead I hadn’t seen yet. I went to my aunt’s and she told me my uncle was looking after a hall but I should go see him.

“I got to the hall and there was a dance on, my uncle convinced me to stay and have a drink.

“I walked down into the hall and there was a table with three girls. One of them was Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth jokes that James only picked her because her other friends were taller.

But, with the couple due to celebrate their platinum wedding anniversary next year, there must have been a little more than height keeping them together.

James’ sense of adventure has never left him. For their honeymoon in 1948, the couple flew to Ireland - a rare luxury at the time.

In the latter stages of his career, James spent time training engineers in India and, while he was there, managed to climb part of the Himalayas.

He said: “I love golf. I played until I was 85 and I wish I still could.

“My pipe fuels me. My doctor recently asked how long I smoked. I said 70 years and he said ‘well, keep doing it’.”

Elizabeth said it is only in the past few years that James has started to speak more openly about the war.

She added: “He talks to the grandchildren and tells them stories.

“We received a letter from a fella from Austria. We think he is an author and he wanted James to sign some pictures. When James saw the letter, he started speaking about a girl he met in Austria who asked if she could walk along with James.

“She was fleeing Belgium but he can’t remember her name and never saw her again. In all the 70 years I have known him, I hadn’t heard that story until last week.

“I suppose life takes hold. We had a family and that was our focus. It is only when you get older that you start to reminisce.”

Fuelled by intrigue of James’ experiences, some of his family went to the cinema together to see a new Hollywood blockbuster about Dunkirk.

James, who didn’t attend on that occasion, said: “I am undecided if I will go and see the film. I think that, in the end, I will go but I worry that I will end up shouting at the screen.”