Keen cricketer, war veteran and journalist Thomas (Tommy) Aitchison died yesterday in Snowflake, Arizona, where he lived with his son Chris Aitchison and daughter-in-law Rosemary.The cause of death was given as multiple organ failure. He was 95 years old.“He had been in grand health until last Saturday, when he suddenly became acutely ill and deteriorated rapidly,” Chris Aitchison said. “He remained his usual self the whole time he lived here in the States, doing lots of writing and corresponding with his war veterans’ tributes. And of course, he still followed sports.”Famous in Bermuda for his love of cricket, Mr Aitchison had lately become a fan of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball team. He also researched and edited the Bermuda Cricket Annual up until 1990.Survived by sons Chris and Bruce, and grandchildren Melody, Simon, Jason, Josha and Janella, Mr Aitchison was recalled last night as “a dedicated husband and a great father, a wonderful person who led a great life”.Born in 1916 in Mount Kisco, New York to long-standing Bermuda residents David and Jean Aitchison, Mr Aitchison came to Bermuda at the age of six. He was of Scottish descent, and spent some of his schooling in Scotland, where he learned to play the bagpipes.A man of many trades, he worked initially as a salesman for Pearman Watlington, and later covered sports for The Mid-Ocean NewsHowever, it was his experience in the Second World War on which Mr Aitchison was notably quiet in later years that was to have the most profound mark on him.“I think it affected him deeply,” Chris Aitchison said. “That’s why he was so strong on the war veterans issue. It was very, very important to him.”He was among the first to sign up with the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps. Travelling overseas in 1940, Mr Aitchison’s convoy came under submarine attack during the Atlantic crossing. He joined the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment, attaining the rank of sergeant, and transferred in 1942 to Black Watch Regiment his father’s county regiment where he honed his bagpiping skills with the bagpipes, and later saw military action in North Africa.Mr Aitchison was stationed in central Italy at the war’s end, where he was attached to one of the headquarter units of the Royal Army Service Corps. He returned to Bermuda in April 1946.Recalling the war for The Mid-Ocean News in 1995, Mr Aitchison said: “I think in the war you were either scared out of your wits, bored to distraction, or very amused. And at this distance, gladly, you tend to remember the amusing things.”He presided over the Bermuda War Veterans Association (BWVA) for many years, and BWVA trustee Jack Lightbourn recalled Mr Aitchison as reluctant to speak of his darker experiences.“Tommy never disclosed that side of himself. Most fellows don’t usually get to talking of the horrors they experienced, but I know Tommy certainly did have his share of some of the nasty things that one can experience in warfare.”Mr Aitchison continued writing about Bermuda’s war veterans right up until his death.“I spoke to him just last week,” Mr Lightbourn said. “He had just completed some writing about war veterans, and was very interested in how their cause was progressing here in Bermuda.”Mr Lightbourn recalled him as “one of the easiest people to talk to that I would ever know”.“I always thought of him as a very honest individual. He was not one to go on tangents. He was very keen to get the proper point of view on something. He took things very much as he found them, and he wrote about them very honestly when he covered them.”Mr Aitchison was said to enjoy travel. He met his first wife, Joan, during the war, and later moved to the US with her, returning to Bermuda in 1976 with his second wife Lois. By this point he had qualified as a chartered accountant, and worked five years for Butterfield and Steinhoff before retiring at the age of 65. Mrs Aitchison was known as a talented organist and piano player, and also taught singing.In 2004, Mr and Mrs Aitchison left Bermuda and moved to San Diego. She died in 2008, after 32 years of marriage.A memorial ceremony is planned for Mr Aitchison, whose ashes are to be scattered in Arizona, in accordance with his wishes.“Though he was out here, a lot of his heart was still in Bermuda,” Chris Aitchison said. “He was dedicated to keeping up with everything that was going on in Bermuda, right up till the end.”