Bognor Regis resident set to celebrate 100th Birthday

Only one in every four thousand men in the UK live to be one hundred, and men remain outnumbered by centenarian women by five to one. Even in an age of longer lives his achievement stands out.

Born in Lambeth on 3 December 1925, he grew up in Warren Road in Cricklewood. The North Circular Road was nearing completion and local industry was thriving, with firms such as Staples Mattresses and Bentley playing major roles in the area. His father worked in retail at Peter Robinson in Oxford Circus while his mother cared for the home.

He attended Wykeham Primary School in Neasden and later Pound Lane in Willesden. The school run meant a two mile walk in the morning and a single old penny for the bus ride home.

It was a time shaped by change. At thirteen he was evacuated to a house in Berkhamsted at the start of the Second World War along with three other children. The move came just before bombs began falling near Warren Street in Cricklewood.

He remembers simple meals, mostly stew, and the treats that made weekends special such as a two penny bar of chocolate at the Saturday cinema.

When he returned home his father arranged a short spell of work for him at a local electrical company.

At sixteen he joined the General Post Office as a trainee engineer at the North West London Telephone Exchange. His entire forty seven year career was spent with the GPO and later British Telecom.

He retired at sixty three in August 1988. Nearly a decade later he moved from Kilburn to Aldwick near Bognor Regis in 1996.

His early work in telephone exchanges and later in underground cabling allowed him to travel and fed his lifelong love of cycling. His parents gave him his first bike at eleven and he never learned to drive.

He cycled well into his seventies and often travelled from Aldwick to Bognor Railway Station by bike before catching the train to London Victoria and continuing on to White Hart Lane to support Tottenham Hotspur.

He recalls his time working in Hampstead when bombs fell nearby, blowing out windows within a street of where he had been.

His love of Spurs began early. At sixteen he attended his first major match, a derby between Spurs and Arsenal. He fondly remembers players such as Johnny Morrison, Bill Nicholson, Ron Burgess, Alf Ramsey, Danny Blanchflower and Jimmy Greaves.

His proudest football moment was attending the 1966 World Cup Final at Wembley. Ramsey managed the team to victory while Greaves, one of the brightest talents in English football, missed out on the squad.

Today Sir Geoff Hurst of West Ham is the sole surviving player from that historic side.

In 1946 he was called up for National Service at the age of twenty one. He trained with the Fleet Air Arm at HMS Gosling in Warrington and later at RNAS Brawdy in Pembrokeshire before becoming a Fleet Air Arm electrician.

Much of his service was spent at RNAS Culdrose near Helston in Cornwall.

He did not serve at sea but says he simply got on with what had to be done.

Cycling grew into a central part of his life. By 1950 he had joined Crouch Hill Cycling Club, which was founded in 1880. He became Secretary and magazine editor and stayed active until the club folded in the late nineteen sixties.

He personally delivered the club’s records by bike to a location near Cambridge University. The archives are now held by the National Cycling Museum. His rides included a hundred-mile journey from Cricklewood to Manchester and a two week holiday covering eight hundred miles to the Pyrenees and back. He still follows major races and recently enjoyed the Tour de France on a new fifty-five-inch television.

At ninety nine he was still embracing new technology when he had Wi-Fi installed at home.

He married Sheila in 1954, and the couple settled in Kilburn.

They enjoyed trips to the cinema and the theatre. Sheila began her working life as a dressmaker before joining the GPO as a telephone exchange operator. They later moved to Bognor Regis and shared sixty-five years of marriage.

Sheila was a passionate gardener. Dave preferred to sit with a newspaper and read the Guardian or the Observer. She died in 2019 after many happy years together.

As his 100th birthday approaches, neighbours and friends in Bognor will be celebrating a life that has spanned a century of history, change and unforgettable memories.