Burma Star Veteran, 92, makes special trip to Scotland to visit youngsters

Ray Fuller, 92, is one of the few remaining Burma Star Veterans. He joined the Royal Navy at 17-years-old in 1943 and served on HMS Illustrious as an air mechanic.

He kept the aircraft battle-ready for attacks on targets in Japanese-occupied Dutch East Indies. The vessel also survived attacks from kamikaze pilots during the Battle of Okinawa.

Ray visited two primary schools in Aberdeen to speak in front of 11-year-old pupils about his own experiences serving in the Second World War from 1941 to 1945.

Catherine Robertson-Ross MBE, a long-time friend of Ray Fuller who organised the visit, said: “There are very few men other than my father who I admire more, than Ray Fuller.

“Ray engaged the children beautifully, with interesting facts about his time on board HMS Illustrious, he spoke about the day he joined up, about his friends and those friends who did not come home.

“I watched as every single child in the room hung onto his every word.”

After hearing Ray's story, Ms Robertson-Ross MBE, who has supported servicemen and women, veterans and their family's for 44 years, asked the children from both schools if they would write a letter pretending they were soldiers in the war.

She said: “The children were very inventive and they dipped their modern paper into tea to discolour the paper to make it look old, it was wonderful.

“I had around 150 letters to read between the two schools and it was very difficult but eventually I chose the three winners.

“I named the trophy the ‘Ray Fuller Burma Star Veteran Trophy’”.

Presenting the trophies were soldiers from 4 SCOTS The Highlanders, the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Ms Robertson-Ross MBE said it was important to invite Ray to Scotland to speak to the schools so when the children are “adults and married with their own children, they will mention this day when Ray came to school, because by then there will be very few, if not any WW2 veterans left to tell their story.”