This information was provided by James' daughter, Christine.
My father, James Goldie Prentice, was a sergeant major in the Gordon
Highlanders during the war. He spent several years in Burma commanding
tanks.
During the lead-up to the VJ celebrations in London, there was an attempt to
find the person who fired the last shot of the second world war. Although
it was impossible to say definitively, it was decided that my father
probably had the best claim. He was chasing Japanese forces out of Burma
six days after the war was over. The army had to bring in high level
Japanese commanders from Singapore to convince the Japanese troops that the
war was over.
In any case, he was invited to the VJ celebrations at Westminster Abbey, and
he has toured Japan at the invitation of the Japanese as a goodwill gesture.
The whole thing is more amazing in that he was mending from some injuries in
Rangoon as the war was ending and hitch-hiked his way back to the front on
an American plane because he was determined that none of his men should be
killed in the last days of the war - and he didn't trust them to anyone
else!
You can tell I'm proud of him - he's a fascinating man!
