A FORMER Greenock soldier marked the D-Day landings anniversary with a moving tribute to his hero dad who was killed during the Second World War.
Branchton man Tommy Armstrong, 83, who has devoted his life to fundraising for good causes, laid a wreath at the Cenotaph in Wellpark in honour of his father, also Thomas.
The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders veteran was only two years old when Driver Thomas Armstrong lost his life on board troop transport vessel SS Yoma, which was sunk by a German U-boat off of Derna in north Africa.
His name takes pride of place on a memorial in a military cemetery.
As he was so young when his dad died, all Tommy has to remember him by are his medals and a photograph.
Veteran Tommy said: "I wanted to remember my father, I was named after him. I don't remember him but I did meet him. I was born in 1941 and he died two years later.
"I am very proud of what he did, and the other soldiers who landed in France a year later for D-Day.
"I took my mother to the cemetery, but my dad is right at the top because of his name.
"I was also very proud to serve in the Argylls and I remain an Argyll to this day."
Tommy joined with veterans all over Inverclyde and beyond on Thursday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.
On June 6, 1944 Allied forces led by America, Britain and Canada and numbering around 100,000-strong stormed the beaches in Normandy.
It was the beginning of the end of the Second World War as they then began the slow, hard slog to take Europe back from the Nazis, reaching Berlin a year later.
More than 9,000 lost their lives in the Operation Overlord assault.
As he paid tribute to all those who died, Tommy clutched a photograph of his dad.
Dvr Thomas Leonard Armstrong died a year before D-Day, one of 484 troops killed in June 1943 when SS Yoma, a Clydebuilt vessel, was sunk.
It was part of a convoy north west of Derna, carrying nearly 2,000 troops, with the ranks made up from the British Army and the Free French Navy.
Under the photograph Tommy has the words 'Dvr Thomas Leonard Armstrong, lost at sea while on operation on June 19 1943.
"Son of John and Sarah Armstrong and husband of Mary Gordon Armstrong. "
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