A GREAT great-grandfather in Chipping Sodbury has marked his 100th birthday by becoming an author.

Charles Lewis finally put pen to paper last year after being asked persistently about his near-death experiences during World War Two and the Suez Canal crisis.

Mr Lewis, who turned 100 today (September 25), took 18 months, and the help of family members, to write Did You Die in the War Granpop?

“People were always asking him about the war,” said his son John. “So his family helped him write the story and for his Father’s Day present this year we had it published in a book.

“Originally it was just for family and friends but people were showing such an interest we ordered another 30 copies and we have been selling them.”

Mr Lewis, originally from Leyton in London, has served two stints as a bomb disposal expert in the Royal Engineers.

He first signed up in 1940 and was shipwrecked during the Normandy Landings. Although the crew returned to England safely, Mr Lewis was quickly put on another boat and sent back to France. He also served in Antwerp where he was bombed continuously for six months.

On leaving the Army and returning to his civilian job as a plumber, Mr Lewis’ wife Gertrude died of Tuberculosis at the age of just 29, leaving two young sons John, now aged 72, and Martin, now 68, and within months he had joined up again, this time taking part in the Suez Canal crisis in 1956.

Mr Lewis, who only moved to Chipping Sodbury two years ago but is already a hugely popular customer with shopkeepers, said: “Some memories are vivid, some are blurred and details are no longer clear whilst others are best forgotten.

“I am on my own now and have time on my hands so I decided to put down some of those memories on paper, as much for me to recall and preserve them as for others to read.”

On his birthday, shoppers at his local supermarket Waitrose stopped to sing him happy birthday and he was visited at his home in Cotswold Court by Fabulous Baker Brother Tom Herbert, from Hobbs House Bakery.

He also received a card from The Queen, a telegram from Work and Pensions Minister Ian Duncan-Smith and a visit from Chipping Sodbury mayor Cllr Paddy Smith.

“I am the luckiest of men,” he told the Gazette. “I have got such a wonderful, supportive family and friends here. I want for nothing.”

Mr Lewis remarried much later in life, losing his second wife Dorothy several years ago, but gaining three step-children Babs, Derrick and Steve. He also has 10 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchild and two great great-grandchildren “When Dorothy died we moved him down here from Worcester,” said his son John. “He thinks Chipping Sodbury is fantastic.

“Worcester was full of hustle and bustle but he thinks everyone here has the time of day for him.”

He is marking his birthday with a huge party at the Masonic Hall in Chipping Sodbury on Saturday (September 26).