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Born in Glasgow on
the 26th of April 1916 and educated at Glasgow Academy Ben Coutts, a son
of the manse, not only had a very remarkable war but he was also a great
Scottish character whose booming voice, gentle humour and warm charisma
endeared him to everyone he met.
Determined to work outdoors Coutts began life as a pony boy a shepherd and
a groom. He joined the Surrey and Sussex Yeomanry before the Second World
War and, after defending areas of the South coast against the potential
invasion, he sailed to North Africa with the Yeomanry in 1941as a Sergeant
Major. His battery fought in the Sudan, Eritrea and Abyssinia. Thereafter
he was commissioned in Cairo and sent to the garrison at Tobruk where he
was severely injured when a stray piece of shrapnel hit him in the face
taking away most of his nose. The hospital ship taking him to Alexandria
was bombed by the Luftwaffe and after a year in hospital and ten plastic
surgery operations he was sent home via the Cape. At Durban he was put
aboard the Cunard liner Laconia crowded with 2,715 crew, women and
children, military personnel, Italian prisoners and Polish guards.
200 miles off Ascension Island the Laconia was attacked by U-156. Almost
2000 perished in the shark ridden waters and after five days on rafts and
overcrowded open boats the few remaining survivors were picked up by a
Vichy French cruiser and sent to an internment camp in Casablanca. Some
weeks later on his way to France the French ship that Coutts was in was
rammed by a British Hunt class destroyer and Ben Coutts was returned to
Britain. He was sent to East Grinstead and put into the care of the
pioneering plastic surgeon Archie McIndoe who rebuilt his face and nose
using bone taken from his hip.
Discharged from the army in 1944 Ben Coutts became an estate manager in
Perthshire and was an expert on Beef Shorthorn, Aberdeen Angus and
Highland Cattle. He was Secretary of the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society, he
travelled, wrote and broadcast extensively, he invariably wore the kilt
and he always enjoyed a glass of Glenlivet. Ben Coutts died in December
2003 aged 87.
Ben Coutts, A Scotsman’s War, The Mercat Press, Edinburgh, 1995.
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