I couldn’t afford the deposit for the rents for new places. It was the lowest time of my life. I thought to myself: 'You’ve served your country, you come home and no-one seems to give a damn about you.' - Donald
As an 18-year-old Able Seaman, James Garrett was sent to the Falklands with the Merchant Navy. He recalls keeping British forces supplied, while enduring regular air raids and assisting survivors in the aftermath of a bombing.
As a teenage drummer from Glasgow, Graham Hopewell was inspired to join the Scots Guards after seeing their band play for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. Aged 19, he didn’t expect to find himself sent to a war zone 8000 miles away in the South Atlantic.
Stewart Cooper, a young naval officer from Aberdeenshire, helped crew the first helicopter on a South Georgian glacier at the beginning of the Falklands conflict. He co-piloted a daring rescue on a glacier, picking up survivors of another helicopter crash.
Teri Newell was 14 when her father, Pipe Major James Riddell, was sent to the Falklands. His iconic tune, the Crags of Tumbledown Mountain, would become famous around the world, but the man behind it would never be the same.
Aboard the “Crazy Y”, Graham Walker remembers freezing conditions and the constant threat of air attack, as well as “pummelling” Argentinian forces and going to the aid of ships in distress.
Les Braby had served in the Scots Guards for 20 years when he was sent to the Falklands. He led men in a diversionary attack in the final days of the conflict, distracting Argentinian forces from Mt Tumbledown.
As a teenager looking forward to university, Mark Beverstock didn’t expect to be sent to a war zone. Forty years later, the retired Rear Admiral looks back on how this early experience shaped his life and career.
Theresa was just 25 when she lost her husband on the final day of the Falklands conflict. Four decades later, she says it still feels like yesterday, as she remembers her devastation and the slow journey to rebuild her life.
Drum Major Willie Urban recalls his time in the Falklands, shooting at Argentinian planes and finding a bomb during a football match.
Graham Daniels was just 20 years old when he was sent to the Falklands aboard the “Crazy Y”. It was a four-month adrenaline rush, living with the constant threat of air attacks and going to the aid of ships in distress.
Growing up in Largs, Ayrshire, the sea had always been part of Kenny Duffy’s life. But nothing could prepare him for serving in the Falklands with the Royal Navy, which he described as “90% boredom, 10% sheer terror”.
Wattie Cheung's Falklands 40th photo exhibition tells the stories of Scottish Falklands veterans to mark the 40th anniversary of the end of the conflict.
2022 marks 40 years since the Falklands War. Find out how we commemorated the anniversary, learn the history of the conflict and read personal stories of those who were there.
Falklands veterans and their families gathered in Edinburgh on Saturday 18th June 2022 for the 40th Anniversary of the Falklands Conflict. Watch the LIVE recording.
Pipers across the world came together to remember those who fell and were injured during the Falklands conflict. Watch our Pipers' Tribute.
The conflict began on 2nd April 1982, when Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands. Read a brief history of the ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982.
