Born, Alexander (Alex) Anderson at Spittalfield Schoolhouse, Perthshire, Scotland in 1920 to School Headmaster John Blair Anderson and his wife Janet (Plenderleith), the author was educated at Perth Academy before attending Dundee Wireless College. He graduated from in 1939 with a Postmaster General's Certificate (1st class) in Radio Telegraphy. Employed first by the Christian Salvesen shipping company, he left home aged 19 years. He was firstly exposed to the rigours of an Antarctic Whaling Expedition before encountering daily threats from Hitler's U-boats and Luftwaffe, on the North Atlantic Convoys. After signing-on for the first time at the Salvesen office in Leith, he parted company with his father who handed him three school jotters. His fatherly advice - to keep a diary of his experiences on this unique opportunity. Advice taken, he went on, in light of wartime shortages, to use opened-out envelopes and cardboard packets to record every-day events, as well as wartime experiences. From the dangerous to the exciting, the humorous to the tragic, living through the 1939-45 years truly became a rite of passage that saw this young man survive the relentless attempts to sink Britain's supply life-line. This was tragically borne out with the subsequent loss to enemy action of no less than four of the seven ships he proudly served on.Discharged from de facto RN War Service on 28th November 1945 by the Merchant Navy, he later set up home in Crieff, Perthshire. Here he ran a successful Radio & T.V. Sales and Service business and started a family. This was followed by the running of a bed & breakfast with wife Betty in Crieff, and latterly Glenalmond. Full retirement came on a move back to the village of Methven where they both grew up. Alex's penultimate goal was achieved by living into the new millennium just before his passing on Valentine's Day, 2000. His final goal, a legacy passed to his sons, was the publication of his WWII memoir. Although only representing six of his eighty years, his journey of remembrance, from hunter to hunted, became his life's work.
