Party time in Thatcham as John celebrates his 100th birthday with a Guinness and his card from The Queen

A ZOOM party and a roast dinner was the order of the day as John Quince celebrated his 100th birthday last month.

His son, David Quince, and daughter, Brenda Dooley, were able to pop by and say hello, while his granddaughter, Jaymi Dooley, and great-grandson, Connor, waved through the window of his home at Alice Bye Court, Thatcham, where he lives with wife of more than 70 years, Joyce, who is 95.

The former Royal Navy petty officer and life-long West Ham fan said the secret to his long life was a Guinness a day.

Mr Quince enjoyed chatting to around 60 different family and friends during the day, including a lovely catch-up with his sister Sylvia, who now lives in Australia.

Ms Dooley, who described her grandfather as “hard not to love”, said Covid restrictions had meant the celebrations weren’t quite what they had hoped.

“We had a cake delivered to him and we had a Zoom party with about 60 people and a family one separately too,” she said.

“We would have had a massive party; we had so much cool stuff planned.

“He repaired engines for naval aircraft during the war and his claim to fame is that Laurence Olivier flew him to America to work on a problem they had.”

After the war, Mr Quince – who also appeared on 100 Year Old Driving School – worked for Ford, before spending many years running pubs in Essex.

He and his wife then headed out to Spain to live, where Ms Dooley said she spent many of her summer holidays as a child. The couple returned to West Berkshire five years ago to be closer to family.