Scotland’s oldest man and the country’s longest surviving veteran of World War I has died at the age of 109.

Alfred Anderson, who served with the 5th Battalion the Black Watch, died in a nursing home in Angus.

Mr Anderson was born in 1896 and was in one of the first British contingents to serve on the Western Front.

He was thought to have been the longest surviving veteran of the 1914 Christmas truce when British and German troops shook hands in no-man’s-land.

For a short time Mr Anderson was batman to Captain Fergus Bowes-Lyon, who was the brother of the late Queen Mother.

This special relationship resulted in a private visit by Prince Charles in 2002.

Mr Anderson, from Alyth, in Perthshire, died on Monday morning at Mundamalla Nursing Home in Newtyle.

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