Britain’s last surviving World War One Tommy celebrates his 111th birthday today.

Harry Patch, a former Shropshire man, fought in the Battle of Passchendale in Ypres, Belgium, in which more than 70,000 of his comrades died.

Born in Somerset in 1898, Mr Patch is the second oldest person in Britain. He served in the trenches as a private with the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry from June to September in 1917 when he was seriously injured by a shell explosion.

He met his first wife Ada while stationed in a convalescence unit in Sutton Coldfield. They married at Holy Trinity Church, Hadley, Telford, in 1919, and also lived at Church Stretton and Gobowen.

He had two sons, Dennis and Roy, both of whom he has outlived. Mr Patch, who now lives in a care home in Wells, Somerset, maintained silence about his Westen Front experiences for 80 years.

After receiving the French Legion d’Honneur medal in 1999, his story became public and he has since been the subject of a BBC TV documentary and written his autobiography, The Last Fighting Tommy.

Today, family members said they hoped he would be well enough to join them for a pub lunch to mark the special day. His birthday was honoured with a tea party at his care home on Saturday, accompanied by the Avon Glen Pipe and Drums Band.

He has put his long life down to clean living, saying: “I neither smoke, drink nor gamble. The three sins, leave them alone.”