Tadley Bevin Boy who met PM becomes nonagenarian

Surprise 90th birthday Kingsclere bash organised by family

A TADLEY Bevin Boy who met the Prime Minister at Number 10 in 2008 celebrated his 90th birthday on Sunday with a surprise party in Kingsclere.

Morris Pearce – better known as Morry – of Sheridan Crescent, met then Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Downing Street, in March 2008, when he was presented with a badge of pride in recognition of his service to his country as one of the Bevin Boys conscripted into mining coal during the Second World War.

Mr Pearce marked becoming a nonagenarian at a 30-strong, surprise party at the Crown Inn, Kingsclere.

The bash was secretly organised by his family, including his daughter, Beverley Elliott, a director of Money People, in Newbury.

A Tadley resident of three decades, Mr Pearce is a carer for his 87-year-old wife, Sylvia.

He said: “Everyone was deliberately vague. I didn’t know where we were going. I was told it was a little journey through the countryside.”

The walls of the pub were adorned with photographs reflecting his life and guests included former work colleagues from Lansing Bagnall (now Linde Lansing) in Basingstoke.

Mr Pearce said: “I was amazed at who was there, we had an absolutely super day.”

The party was also attended by Mr Pearce's son, Howard, and his several grandchildren and great grandchildren, who tucked into a birthday cake in the shape of the number 90.

Mr Pearce spent three and a half years as a Bevin Boy during the war, and has been deaf in his left ear ever since after the nerve was destroyed descending 2,000 feet in the mines.