Former Aden veteran Alan Ryrie of Aberdeen, has died aged 83.
He undertook his National Service with the Scots Guards but signed up as a regular and spent nine years with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
Alan trained as a vehicle recovery mechanic and saw service during the Aden Emergency of the 1960s, and had postings to Hong Kong and Northern Ireland.
He was born in George Street, Aberdeen, in 1939 to stonemason Lewis Ryrie and his wife Olive.
Country living
Much of his early life was spent living on a farm at Insch with his Aunt Beattie and Uncle Jimmy.
Alan loved the freedom and the open spaces of the countryside. He lived in a bothy with his relatives and was able to work on the farm and in the hills with cattle and sheep.
After his service in the Scots Guards and then the REME, where he was promoted to corporal, Alan returned to Scotland.
He settled in Perthshire and got a job working at the piggery at Linton Farm, Stanley.
During this time he met his future wife, Isabella. They married at the registrar’s office in Perth and set up a home in a tied house on the farm at Stanley, with Isabella’s three children, Alex, Kenny and Gillian.
In the mid-1970s, Alan had a change of career and began work as a machinist at the textile mill at Luncarty, three miles south of Stanley.
Dream home
Alan and Isabella were able to buy their dream home, the Old Gate House in Luncarty in the 1980s but sadly, Isabella died in 1987 without having much time to enjoy it.
When Luncarty mill closed, Alan retired but injured his knee in a fall in Perth and required a replacement, however, the operation was not a success and he experienced ongoing pain.
In 1999, he returned to live in Aberdeen where he met his partner, Mary Coutts.
Alan was a member of the Aden Veterans’ Association and took part in reunions in Blackpool.
He had been a member of the Ex-Service Club in Perth and was a member of Legion Scotland in Aberdeen and enjoyed visiting other legion branches around Scotland.
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