TOUCHING tributes have been paid to “a true gentleman” who passed away peacefully in his sleep on October 23 at the age of 93.

Crawford Gardener Ballyntine Muir, better known as Jock to his friends and family, was born in Glasgow on April 1, 1919. Tragically his mother died during childbirth and his father, a coal merchant, passed away a few months later.

Jock was placed in an orphanage and ended up in a Christian Boys’ Home in Bournemouth where he was educated and brought up.

At the age of 15 he declined to take over his late father’s business in Glasgow and joined the army, serving heroically in the Royal Corps of Signals as a dispatch rider. Jock was posted to India and was in Singapore at the outbreak of the Second World War when the Japanese invaded.

Jock was imprisoned in Shanghai, where prisoners of war endured harsh treatment, before being moved to The Burma Railway, known as the Death Railway.

Forced labour was used in its construction and, of the 60,000 Allied prisoners who worked on the railway, 16,000 died as a direct result of the project.

Jock was placed at Hellfire Pass, a particularly difficult section of the line to build, and then on a section close to the Bridge over the River Kwai.

He returned to Singapore as the Allies forced the Japanese back and, at the end of the war, went back to India for rehabilitation and recovery, weighing less than six stone.

After being demobbed, Jock returned to live in Bournemouth and Southampton, working as a stoker on the Queen Mary liner for a few years and then on small coastal tankers.

Following many years at sea, he decided to come ashore, working first for Southern Railways and finally for the Royal Mail, retiring at the age of 65 when he moved back to Bournemouth.

Jock met Winifred Gouriet and they married in 1987. It was the first time Jock had a family of his own and he became a much-loved family figure and a great help to Win’s daughter Ann and his son-in-law Rob.

Jock and Winifred lived happily for many years at the War Memorial Homes on Castle Lane where he was a popular figure and enjoyed a good sing-song.

Rob said: “A proud Scotsman, Jock loved nothing better than to stand up and sing ‘I Belong to Glasgow’, even though he had only lived there for six months or so! He was also a true gentleman.”

A member of Kinson Conservative Club, Jock will be sadly missed by his many friends and family who thanked the staff at Pinehurst rest home in Boscombe where he spent the last year of his life.

Jock’s funeral service took place at Bournemouth Crematorium on November 9.