D- Day veteran in 100th celebration

ONE of the UK’s few remaining D- Day veterans has been celebrating reaching his 100th birthday which he puts down to “keeping very fit” all his life.

Family and friends gathered at the home of John Roberts and his wife Gillian in Whitstable, Kent, as he opened his birthday card from the King and Queen.

The great- grandfather joined the Royal Navy at the age of 13 and served until 1978 having reached the rank of rear admiral.

On D- Day, as a 20- year- old sub- lieutenant, he was serving aboard the destroyer HMS Serapis at the front of the convoy arriving at Sword beach at 7.30am with the ship remaining to fire on German positions along the coast for 11 days.

After the war he went on to become a fighter pilot, flew a Sea Fury in Korea, captained aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and headed the Fleet Air Arm, before retiring after a 40year career.

On reaching the milestone birthday, he said: “I have never felt like it before, last night I couldn’t believe it was going to happen, and my wife and I stayed up until midnight just to make quite sure I did make it.

“It’s astonishing and there are so many people who have come to see me opening the card from the King and the Queen.”

Explaining the secret of his long life, he said: “I grew up in North Wales and at school I was always good at games so I have never smoked in my life and I have always tried to keep very fit.

“There was a tall mountain behind where we lived in Wales and I used to climb that about every third day, it was 2500ft high, and I think by keeping fit all my life it has helped me get as far as I have done.”

His daughter, Clare Felton, said: “It’s a strange thing, this morning was the first time I stopped and thought about the fact that this is such a monumental milestone.

“My children, John’s grandchildren, were saying ‘ This is really something, grandpa’s 100, can you believe it’.

“We are all delighted and it’s fantastic he’s in really good form today with lots of people here wanting to talk to him.”