A FORMER serviceman was moved to tears by hand-made thank-you cards from youngsters when they were gifted to him during a Remembrance service.

William Paul was at the cenotaph in his full Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders regalia when they were presented and he was deeply moved by the act of kindness.

He lost his wife Jean last September, after caring for her for a number of years.

As always, he turned up for the service at Wellpark to honour the fallen.

The 27th Greenock Brownies had made special cards for veterans and pensioners taking part in the commemoration.

William, 85, of Bannockburn Street, said: "It meant the world to me, I was choked up by the gesture.

"It means so much that those children are thinking of us, that they have watched the news and what happened all those years ago means something to them."

In his young adulthood the apprentice draughtsman found himself called up for National Service in 1958.

During the next two years he found himself in intelligence units along with another local recruit, privy to top secrets at iconic Dover Castle and in Salisbury at the height of the Cold War.

But his love for his fiancee Jean Alexander brought him home again, where he married before continuing to work with Fan Systems in Greenock.

William added: "I met Jean at Cragburn and right away I knew there was something special about that lady."

Sadly William's time in service not only left him with a tremendous pride in the armed forces, but also a condition causing vertigo, dizziness and balance problems, caused by the munition blasts during training in Salisbury.

As a child growing up in Greenock's east end he'd felt the full onslaught of the Nazis as they hit Hillend Drive in the east end during the Blitz.

Luckily his house there escaped any damage but he can still remember it vividly.

He said: "You never forget the sounds of the bombs dropping, hitting the street.

"My dad was in the Navy but he had diabetes so was based at home."

William and his wife of 61 years settled into married life, bringing up their family in their home town.

Later in life they were founder members of the award winning Inverclyde Tourist Group and involved in the celebrations during the Queen's diamond jubilee visit in 2012.

Jean, 84, passed away after suffering strokes which had left her housebound with William looking after her.

William, who goes every year to the Remembrance service each year to pay his respects, says he hopes the tradition will go on long into the future, with the generations to come like the Brownies and other uniformed organisations carrying it on,

He said: "These men gave their lives for us, they should always be remembered."