My tips? Wash in cold water – and stop staring at your phone

GEORGE EMMERSON, 102

from Banbury, Oxfordshire GERMAN Zeppelins floating menacingly over London during the latter years of World War I are George’s earliest memory.

Now 102, he was born in Forest Gate, East London, to ‘a little Irish mother who brought up five children in the middle of that war’.

His tips for a long life include washing in cold water, not drinking whisky and having lots of friends to talk to.

George worked for the Inland Revenue as a tax officer — but his real passion was for painting landscapes, which he still does beautifully, despite his failing eyesight.

On occasion, George would even enclose a little painting of a flower with a tax demand letter, to soften the blow. ‘They didn’t like me doing that at the tax office,’ he says, ‘but I still did it. I find that if you’re kind to people, you get kindness back. One of the things about the world that’s changed is that people aren’t as kind as they were. People should shut down their mobile phones and talk to each other. Don’t forget the art of conversation.’

Alongside kindness and friendship, you get the feeling that humour may be George’s secret to longevity.

‘I met my wife at my father’s second wedding,’ he laughs. ‘He married the eldest of five sisters and I married the youngest. Dad and I both had the same mother-in-law.’

Marriage to Gladys, who died nine years ago, lasted 68 years.

‘I couldn’t believe my luck when she first put her arms around me,’ he says. ‘I still say goodnight to her when I go upstairs to bed.’