Farmer and former soldier who took part in the liberation of Rangoon during the Second World War

Born: December 12, 1918;

Died: October 18, 2018

MAJOR Thomas Arklay Guthrie, who has died aged 99, was a farmer and former soldier who as a lieutenant with the Gurkha Rifles during the Second World War took part in the Burma campaign, pushing south from India before liberating Rangoon.

He was born in December 1918, in the Newton Farm Cottage, Newton of Huntingtower Farm, Perth, the eldest son of John and Annie Guthrie. The farm produced and sold milk around the Tulloch area of Perth.

Thomas attended the Northern District School. He was due to leave at 14, but was asked to stay on to teach the younger children mathematics and arithmetic. After one year his father said he was needed on the farm.

At 14 he was selling hoggs at the Perth Mart or rather he was turning them out unsold believing them to be worth more. He would do this periodically with sheep and cattle for the rest of his career.

He walked to church at Tibbermore every Sunday from the Newton of Huntingtower and by 18 was an elder.

In 1939, when war was declared with Germany he was called up to the Black Watch in Perth and in early 1940 was sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force. In June 1940, he was evacuated from Cherbourg to Southampton in the last ship to leave. A week later, while back home in Perth, his appendix burst.

In 1941, he was commissioned as a Lieutenant 4/10 Gurkha Rifles. Three years later, with the Japanese invasion of India, he took part in the battles of Kohima and Imphal and was promoted to major.

In 1944 -1945 he took part in the Burma campaign including the crossing of Irrawaddy River and the battles of Meiktila and Mandalay following which he took part in the liberation of Rangoon.

In September 1946, he moved to French Indo-China (now Vietnam) to disarm 70,000 Japanese troops and await the return of French colonial troops.

He left the army in 1948 and two years later he bought Guardswell, an upland livestock arable farm between Abernyte and Kinnaird on the Braes of the Carse.

He married Marion June Johnson Main in 1952 and raised four children, Katherine, Sandy, Arklay and Douglas.

In 1966 he sold Guardswell and moved back to the Newton of Huntingtower farm on the retiral of his father. In 1968 with his father-in-law's health deteriorating, he took over the management of ADC Main Ltd potato merchants until 1972 and also managed Windyedge Farm, Perth, until he retired in 2000.

His passion was finishing livestock. He would travel all over Scotland to go to a market. He started by going around the Inner Hebrides just after the war and was one of the first farmers to travel to find stores to fatten. He often got top price at Perth and Stirling markets with his fat lambs and hoggs, many of which he bred himself.

Outside of work, he and his wife June enjoyed playing bridge with good friends and neighbours. He was also an avid reader of any work about the conflict in the far east 1940-45. Arklay and June retired to Huntingtowerfield, Perth in 2001.

He enjoyed the company of his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren and they his company. He donated regularly to the Ghurkha Welfare Trust and supported their fund-raising activities whenever he could.

He enjoyed great health right up to the end, living in his own home but with support from his family and day carers. It was only during the last month of his life that he finally began to show his age. He died aged 99 years and 10 months. He is survived by his four children, nine grandchildren and five great grandchildren.