Glencorse Massacre: I discovered the bodies of three murdered soldiers

When Mr Anderson reached a derelict cottage next to Loganlea reservoir he found the bodies behind a wall, at the bottom of a flight of steps.

Sgt Hosker and Maj Cunningham were “like book ends” sitting upright on the steps while Pte Thomson was in a crumpled heap having been shot through the back of the head.

“I got the fright of my life when I looked over that wall,” said Mr Anderson.

“The vision of those men sticks in my head – white faced men covered in blood and snow and a horrible isolated location like that, they were dumped there.”

He said he felt vulnerable and exposed as he stood guard at the crime scene and waited for back up from police colleagues.

And that fear has had a lasting impact.

“There’s people been taken out but you don’t know what the score is, you don’t know what has gone down, ” the father of four added.

“I was anxious and my eyes were looking all over the place because I didn’t know where the perpetrator was.

“I was petrified, especially when I saw a man coming down the path towards me. I was shouting ‘halt, who goes there?”

To his relief, the man was a local farmer.