Bolton-le-Sands war veteran and keep fit fanatic Harry Hill turns 100 days after VE Day anniversary

Harry Hill will be celebrating his birthday on Tuesday May 12, helped by friends and neighbours in Bolton-le-Sands, who will be giving his garden a makeover and singing Happy Birthday from a safe distance.

The former agricultural supplement supplier, who lives in St Nicholas Lane, puts his long life down to diet, in particular grapeseed oil.

Harry was born on May 12 1920 in Whitehaven, where he went to school. In 1939 he worked for WH Smith in Kendal, collecting the newspapers from the train and giving them out to the paperboys, doing the rounds for any who didn't turn up.

His long and varied life also saw him selling ice-cream from a bike and barrow as a teenager.

He volunteered for war service, signing up as soon as he could and joining the RAF as a Ground Gunner.

His role was guarding the airfields and he once shot down a German plane.

He met his wife Rosina, who worked in the NAAFI, when he was stationed at Thorney Island, and the pair married when he was 21. She sadly passed away in 2014.

In the days following D-Day Harry landed in Holland, where he had a close shave with a gun recovered from a German tank, which one of his men accidentally let off, bursting Harry's ear drums and blowing off his eyebrows.

They made their way to Berlin, and Harry was in Berlin on VE Day, where he had his photo taken in a studio by a former Nazi photographer who beckoned him in off the street.

He tells the story of going into a German Army headquarters in Berlin and seeing lots of hand drawn maps of England with all the stately homes allocated to leading Germans for after the invasion.

He brought some of the maps back with him to Kendal, but Rosina was so worried that they would get him into trouble that Harry made a fire in the garden and burned them.

After the war Harry set up Kendal Agricultural Supplies, selling animal food supplements to local farmers.

He built his own house at Plantation Bridge, Kendal. In later life he became a volunteer fitness instructor for South Lakeland District Council.

Harry has always been and remains a health fanatic - able to walk round on his hands as a young man, he taught PT and self defence to RAF pilots, and later keep fit classes in Kendal.

Even today he takes a large number of health supplements daily and uses his walking machine and cross trainer every day.

Harry gave up driving last year after a similar incident to that of the Duke of Edinburgh.

In recent years, following Rosina's death, Harry has become a regular member of Holy Trinity Church in Bolton-le-Sands.

Harry grew up as the second oldest of four children, alongside siblings Francis, Josephine and Doris.

Josephine is the only other sibling still alive, living in sheltered accommodation in Morecambe at the age of 98.

It has been arranged for the pair to meet up, at a distance, on Harry's birthday.

Harry also has two nephews, Frank and Graham.

Harry's fellow parishioners, friends and neighbours have banded together and in celebration are giving his garden a makeover and will be singing Happy Birthday on the day.

Because the big party which the church was planning to throw for him can't happen under social distancing, if any readers would like to send Harry a card for his 100th birthday you can do so through Holy Trinity Church, Main Road, Bolton-le-Sands, Lancashire, LA5 8DX.