Paul Wilson was a Lance Corporal in the Royal Highland Fusiliers and a member of the regimental band, who played at some of Britain’s highest profile and most prestigious public events over several years.

As he was queuing at the top of the Royal Mile with fellow band members, about to ascend the few, remaining yards to the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle to play in the annual military tattoo, he was apprehended by two members of the Royal Military Police.

Led away in full view of his colleagues and the watching public, he was held in the castle prison, where he underwent intensive interrogation until he “cracked” and was summarily dismissed from the Army.

Paul’s “crime” was to be gay at a time when it was illegal to be homosexual and a member of the armed forces. The rule was stringently enforced, with undercover military police officers cruising bars, propositioning servicemen and women they suspected of being gay in order to “out” them.

This was not back in the dark, unenlightened days of the 1950s when Alan Turing, the British codebreaking war hero and father of modern computing was chemically castrated after being convicted of gross indecency for homosexual acts.

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