Donald Black won an immediate Military Cross as a 20-year-old National Service 2nd lieutenant in what became known as the Second Battle of the Hook in Korea in November 1952. Although armistice negotiations were already taking place at Panmunjon and the defensive lines had stabilised along the 38th Parallel, the Chinese and North Koreans sought any opportunity to improve their own positions at the expense of the United Nations force. “The Hook”, a 200ft-high hill dominating the approach down the Sami-ch’on valley to the centre of the Commonwealth Division was held by 1st Battalion The Black Watch.

During the night of November 18 to 19, the Hook was attacked by a horde of so-called volunteers of the Chinese Liberation Army under cover of an intense concentration of artillery fire. Black was commanding a platoon of his battalion on a protruding spur on the forward slope of the feature. As soon as the enemy artillery barrage lifted, his position was overrun but he led his men from their protective bunkers to engage the attackers in hand-to-hand fighting.

The greater part of his position regained, Black ordered his men back into their bunkers and called down artillery supporting fire using proximity fuses, so the shells exploded above ground with maximum effect on the surrounding enemy, on to his own position and its approaches.

Despite this deterrent, the Chinese renewed their attack with further hand-to-hand fighting, shovels being used by the “Jocks” when ammunition began to run short. The enemy pulled back at first light, leaving Black and seven unwounded survivors of his platoon in possession of the disputed spur. He reported to his company commander: “There were times during the night when the situation here was extremely twitchy.” He was presented with the ribbon of his immediate MC in front of the whole battalion before it left for home.

Michael Donald Gordon Black was born at Edenwood, Fife, and educated at Sedbergh. He was called up for National Service in 1951 and commissioned into the Black Watch, joining the 1st Battalion then stationed in Berlin before leaving for Korea the following spring. He kept in close contact with his regiment throughout his life, serving for a number of years with the 6th/7th Territorial Army battalion as a company commander.

In civilian life he worked for Michael Nairn & Company in Kirkcaldy as a manager and director, as well as in arable farming and assisting his wife Priscilla in breeding pedigree Aberdeen Angus cattle. He painted in both oils and watercolours, fly fishing was a lifelong passion and he devoted much time to his first wife’s love of horse racing.

Priscilla Black, née Holt, predeceased him and he married Jenni Napier in 2001. She survives him, with a son and two daughters of his first marriage.

Major Donald Black, MC, Korean War veteran, was born on September 7, 1932. He died suddenly on August 28, 2009, aged 76