The last known veteran of the First World War's Christmas truce died yesterday, aged 109.

Black Watch veteran Alfred Anderson - who was stationed at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, in 1917 and married a woman from Ripon - died at a care home in Angus, Scotland. Born in Dundee on June 25, 1896, his life spanned parts of three centuries.

It is believed that his death brings the number of surviving First World War servicemen to eight.

Mr Anderson, who was Scotland's oldest man, died peacefully in his sleep at about 3am at Mundamalla Nursing Home, in the town of Newtyle.

He grew up in Newtyle, and signed up for the Territorial Army as a teenager in 1912.

He was an 18-year-old when, on Christmas Day morning 1914, British and German soldiers walked across the shell-blasted mud of No-Man's Land to shake hands, sing carols, share cigarettes and swap tunic buttons.

Most famously, the troops played football together, kicking around empty bully-beef cans and using their caps or steel helmets as goalposts.

The unauthorised truce spread across much of the 500-mile Western Front where more than a million were camped, lasting several weeks in some places.

Mr Anderson's unit, the 5th Battalion of the Black Watch, was billeted in a dilapidated farmhouse away from the front line at the time, so he did not take part in the kickabouts.

But only last year, he recalled: "All I'd heard for two months in the trenches was the hissing, cracking and whining of bullets in flight, machine-gun fire and distant German voices.

"But there was a dead silence that morning, right across the land as far as you could see. We shouted: 'Merry Christmas', even though nobody felt merry.

"The silence ended early in the afternoon and the killing started again.

"It was a short peace in a terrible war."

He was invalided out in 1916 by a shell explosion that killed several of his comrades and left him with serious shrapnel wounds.

He met and fell in love with Susan Iddison, a nanny from Ripon, while stationed with his regiment at nearby Catterick.

They were married in June 1917 and moved to Scotland where Mr Anderson took over his father's building and joinery business in Newtyle.

A holder of France's highest honour, the Legion d'Honneur, Mr Anderson was already too old for active service in the Second World War but helped to set up the home guard units.

He and his wife brought up a family of six and celebrated a diamond wedding anniversary before Mrs Anderson died of a stroke, aged 83, in 1979.

A bust of the soldier is on display at the public library in Alyth and a biography - A Life In Three Centuries - was published in 2002.

The veteran, who received his latest telegram from the Queen in June, was too frail to take part in the recent Remembrance Day ceremonies.

Mr Anderson is survived by four children, ten grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

The Reverend Neil Gardner, of Alyth Parish Church, said yesterday: "He was Scotland's oldest man, but he remained lucid almost until the end. He was a very gracious and unassuming man."

He added: "Alfred was quite philosophical about his wartime experiences - he was never up or down, he took everything in his stride.

"He had a great sense of humour but also a terrific sense of wisdom."

Neil Griffiths, of the Royal British Legion of Scotland, said: "Alfred was a fine old soldier who was a brilliant example of old world courtliness.

"He was gentle and very humorous, with a quick wit. He used to say until recently that his ambition was to die shot in bed by a jealous lover.

"But I think also there was a great sadness in his heart that he had outlived his generation - all his friends had died.

"He was one of those old Scots who represented the finest aspects of the Scottish character and his departure is a sad moment for this country."

The First Minister of Scotland, Jack McConnell, joined the tributes, saying: "Alfred Anderson represented the generation of young Scots who fought in the First World War, and endured unimaginable horrors.

"Many of them made the ultimate sacrifice for their country and we must never forget what they have given to us."