A DREGHORN war veteran has sadly passed away this week at the age of 90.

Tom Rennie fought in the Second World War and was involved in two of the most gruelling battles in modern history.

He served as a gunner on HMS Undaunted which was part of the Arctic convoy that provided Russia with vital supplies, a task which Winston Churchill called, “the worst journey in the world.” After returning from the mission, Tom was instantly thrust into the most remembered battled of our time.

He joined an alliance of 156,000 troops that descended onto Nazi-occupied Europe which is still known as the largest seaborne invasion in history, the D-Day landings.

Mr Rennie was part of the offensive for almost a week as the invasion saw over 4,000 allied soldiers dying and over 12,000 casualties.

He was recognised as a decorated war hero and received multiple awards for his courage and bravery.

In June 2013, Tom and fellow Dreghorn war veteran Donald MacKinnon, were presented with Arctic Star medals at the HMS Gannet naval in Monkton to commemorate their time spent on vessels as part of the Arctic convoys.

The medal is awarded for any length of service in the Arctic Circle by members of the British Armed Forces and the Merchant Navy.

Tom was then presented with the highly prestigious Ushakov medal by the Consul General of the Russian Federation, Andrey Pritsepov in November of last year.

Due to his ill health, the medal was presented to Tom at Crosshouse Hospital as he was recovering from a stroke at the time.

After the Second World War, he returned home to Dreghorn and began his career as a butcher whilst staying with his loving wife Mari.

Unfortunately, Tom’s health did not improve after his stroke at the end of last year and he passed away earlier this week.