Memories of Ralph aged 110

AT the incredible age of 110, Ralph Hoare is one of Britain’s only living links to the day that peace returned to Europe 100 years ago.

He was 10 on Armistice Day in Plymouth and still recalls the singing and dancing to welcome soldiers home from the Front.

He said: “It was amazing. I’d hurt my head playing rugby and was heavily bandaged.

“A soldier came up to me and joked, ‘Where were you wounded? Ypres or Somme?’

“Then later in the evening I went to our school playing field and the headmaster gave us cups of cocoa and let off fireworks.”

Mr Hoare, in the RAF in the Second World War, is Britain’s third oldest man. He lives with his daughter in Gloucester and spends time at Avonmere Care Home in Bristol for respite care.