December 1922 - August 2013
Andrew McCallum, who has died aged 90 at his home in Seaford, East Sussex, was a former soldier with 9th Battalion Seaforth Highlanders, during the Second World War. He served with distinction and was seriously wounded at the Battle of Anzio.
Andrew began his working life following in his father's footsteps as an apprentice cabinetmaker in 1938 in Beith in Scotland. During the early years of the Second World War, he served in Beith Home Guard before being was called up in 1942 to join the 9th Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders. He completed officer training and was posted to Italy as part of the landing in Anzio, 30 miles south of Rome.
Winston Churchill had hoped 'Operation Shingle' as the landing was known, would be a powerful Allied attack to break the deadlock at Monte Cassino and the Gustav Line. However, it turned out the attack line changed little in a month and during that time, one of the bloodiest battles of the war was fought. Indeed quite a number of Blesma Members lost their limbs at Anzio.
Andrew was sent to join the 6th Gordon Highlanders in the middle of a battle. He immediately took over one of the few platoons left in the battalion, which had already lost 300 men. On 23 May 1944, he was carrying out a reconnaissance patrol when he got too close to a German position and stood on a mine which blew his leg off.
He was evacuated to England and fitted with an artificial leg. This allowed him to take a desk job in a unit in Sussex, where he met his wife Sylvia who was a land girl at the time. After being discharged from the Army in December 1946, Andrew spent the next 35 working in the civil service and he was a Member of Blesma’s Brighton Branch.
Despite his injury, Andrew always considered himself very lucky and had no regrets: "Despite losing my leg in the war, I consider myself very proud to have served and survived, for I saw first-hand that far too many didn't come home."