John Cruickshank, who died recently, was the last surviving holder of the Victoria Cross from the Second World War. He was also one of the six founder members of the Scout troop at Greenbank Parish Church, Edinburgh.
Scouting at Greenbank goes back to 1933. The “Fourth” has been thriving ever since – under slightly different names, currently 4th Braid. John Cruickshank was born in 1920 in Aberdeen and moved to Greenbank with his family in 1929, pioneering the Scout troop in January 1933 when he was 12. Looking back in 2023 for the troop’s 90th anniversary, John said “I was glad to have been a Scout and enjoy the benefits of the movement”.
Flight Lieutenant Cruickshank won the Victoria Cross in 1944. Piloting a Catalina flying boat with the RAF’s Coastal Command from Sullom Voe in Shetland, his crew found and attacked a surfaced German U-boat, flying through flak from its anti-aircraft gun. On his first pass, his plane’s depth charges did not release, so Cruickshank brought the aircraft back round for a second pass and this time straddled the U-boat with his charges, sinking it with all hands. The German flak had however been deadly accurate, killing the Catalina’s navigator and injuring four including both pilots (Cruickshank himself in 72 places). Flying through the night, it took the damaged Catalina five and a half hours to return to Sullom Voe. Cruickshank’s injuries were such that he never flew in command of an aircraft again.
After the war he returned to his pre-war job of banking, working in India and Pakistan with Grindlays Bank before retiring in 1976. He died in August 2025.
