An Army reservist has visited an island battlefield in the Netherlands where his Edinburgh grandfather fought through floodwater to liberate Europe from the Nazis.

Colour Sergeant James Gould, 51, who serves with 6th Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland (6 SCOTS), retraced the footsteps of his grandfather, Private Thomas Polson, who worked in the capital after the Second World War.

Mr Gould marked the 81st anniversary of Operation Infatuate, the Allied landings which liberated the island of Walcheren in November 1944, with fellow reservists on a battlefield study, Exercise Lowland Poppy.

His grandfather fought in the battle, but hardly ever spoke about it. He survived the Second World War and later worked in Portobello as a hairdresser, before his death in 1999.

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