But for an unknown reason they were never presented to Alex and he died in 1998 without ever receiving the honours.

After a long campaign by his family, proud widow Mary was finally presented with the medals this week after the Dundee branch of the Royal British Legion Scotland intervened.

Lord Provost John Letford, in his capacity as Lord Lieutenant of the city, handed them over during a meeting of the city’s war widows in the Queens’ Hotel.

“I’ve been trying to get hold of them for 60 years, so it means a great deal to finally get them,” said a delighted Mary.

“I didn’t know I was getting them until they were presented to me, so it was a massive shock. I started crying.”

Alex enlisted into the Gordon Highlanders in May 1938 and was posted to British Malaya that July.

Captured by the Japanese in 1942, he was held as a prisoner until the end of the war.

During this period he was among the thousands of prisoners of war used as forced labour for the construction of the notorious Burma Railway.

It is estimated around 16,000 Allied prisoners of war died during this work.

Alex returned to the UK on the conclusion of the war in October 1945 and was discharged from the army on medical grounds in August 1949.

But Mary says Alex never fully recovered from his war experiences and missed out on receiving the medals during the turbulent time.

“Once he came back, he wasn’t himself,” she said. “He always had nightmares and he was never really the same again. They say he received his medals when he came back but I can’t remember that at all.”

After Alex’s death his family renewed efforts to trace the medals. No-one has any recollection of them being presented to Alex, but the MoD refused to issue duplicates as its records indicated Alex had received the awards in 1951.

However, Frank Smith of Dundee branch of the Royal British Legion, managed to get hands on the sought after replicas.

“Mary has been trying for some time to get hold of her husband’s medals,” he said.

“Unfortunately the official records at the Medals Office show that these had been issued.

“Duplicates cannot be obtained from the medals office except under very strict rules. For example, proof they have been destroyed in a fire or that sort of thing. “But I have been able to obtain a set of copies of the four medals concerned.”

Alex and Mary’s daughter Alison Kettles told the Tele she was delighted her mum had now been presented with the duplicate honours.

“We have been trying to get a copy of his medals for years,” she said. “Once my father was discharged from the army he was in and out of hospital. Neither he nor my mother had any recollection of him being presented with medals

“It was great she was able to get them. She has been trying for such a long time to get hold of them.”

Mary was presented with copies of the 1939-1945 Star, the Pacific Star, the Defence Medal and the War Medal 1939-1945, all engraved with Alex’s name.