ALASTAIR ROBERTSON

Gordon Highlander and former Burma Railway prisoner of war
Born April 19, 1910
Died March 20, 2008

 Lt Col W A D Billy Innes, who has died aged 97, was one of the last surviving Gordon Highlanders to have been a prisoner of war on the notorious Burma Railway.

His family were Innes of Cowie near Stonehaven and Raemoir, Banchory. His father, James, was a Royal Navy captain, his mother, Sheila, the daughter of Lt Col John Forbes of Rothiemay.

His knowledge of north-east family histories was encyclopaedic and he was one of the few people who could boast of having danced reels with the young Lady Elizabeth Forbes-Sempill of Craigievar, who was later legally declared to be a man.

Innes was educated at Marlborough College and Sandhurst. He joined the Gordon Highlanders in 1930 as a 2nd Lieutenant. In 1935 the battalion was posted to Gibraltar where he hunted with Royal Calpe Hunt in the surrounding Spanish countryside.

In 1939 he married Mary Alison Burnett-Stuart and they went with the 2nd Battalion to Singapore, taking with them their wedding presents, which were inevitably lost in the later surrender to the Japanese. He was a temporary major when Singapore surrendered to the Japanese on February 15, 1942. His wife was evacuated on one of the last ships out of the beleaguered city and it was almost a year before she knew whether her husband was dead or alive.

In October 1942 the captured Gordons were shipped north from Singapore in cattle trucks, standing for four days, to start work on the railway which went on to claim the lives of thousands. Reticent about his time as a PoW, Innes insisted others had been worse off than him. However, he was unimpressed by the belated £10,000 compensation payment to former PoWs and just wanted the Japanese to say sorry for the way they had treated their prisoners.

In 1949 he was parade commander when the Gordons were given the freedom of Aberdeen but he retired in 1952 rather than continue to serve abroad.

After the war the couple established successful tweed weaving and market garden businesses at the Old Manse of Marnoch, Banffshire.

Innes had a natural talent for gardening, which had stood him in good stead during captivity, growing vegetable to eke out sparse rations. Throughout his captivity he retained, against all odds, a copy of MacGregor Skene's A Flower Book for the Pocket. He continued to refer to the book until his death.

His extraordinary physical and mental toughness re-emerged late in life when Alison suffered a stroke. He nursed her with loyal local help for eight years until her death in 1997.

At Marnoch he created a unique garden which he opened for charity. Like most gardeners, he was generous with his knowledge and plants and was patron of the "Foggie" (Aberchirder) Flower Show.

A keen Scottish country dancer, he had given lessons in Aberdeen, Egypt and Sudan and at the local prep school, Blairmore, rather to the chagrin of his sons, Michael and Jonathan, who were pupils. In his 80s he danced a reel at the wedding of a neighbour's daughter.

He was a Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Banffshire, chairman of the local Territorial and Auxiliary Forces Association, a JP and involved in former PoW associations.

Following Alison's death - they had moved from Marnoch to a smaller house in Aberlour - the colonel surprised and delighted everyone when, at the age of 90, he married Patricia Gordon, the widow of George Gordon of Cairnfield, Buckie, a former Gordon.

In 2006 he took the salute at the Beating Retreat for The Highlanders (Gordons and Queen's Own Highlanders) in Aberlour. Brigadier Hugh Monro paid tribute to Lt Col Innes and his generation two days later at the Freedom of the City of Aberdeen parade for the Highlanders Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. Munro said: "His example and those of his ilk will get our backs a little straighter in a world where service and commitment are oft- forgotten values."