The world's oldest man has turned 112 in a care home in Merseyside.
John Alfred Tinniswood, from Southport, said his long life was “pure luck” and he had no special diet apart from eating fish and chips every Friday.
Tinniswood was born in 1912 – the same year the Titanic sank – and earlier this year took over the title of world's oldest living person from Venezuela's Juan Vicente Pérez, who died in April at the age of 114.
Tinniswood had already held the title of Britain's oldest man in 2020.
A lifelong Liverpool football fan, Tinniswood was born in the city just 20 years after the club was founded and has lived through almost all of the club's ups and downs, including all eight of the Reds' FA Cup wins and most of their league titles.
He met his wife, Blodwen, at a dance in the city and they were together for 44 years until her death in 1986. Their daughter, Susan, was born in 1943, making him now a great-grandfather.
Mr Tinniswood is the world's oldest living World War II veteran, a former manager in the Army Payroll Corps, who went on to work as an accountant for Shell and BP before retiring in 1972.
Tinniswood still lives largely independently: She manages her own money, listens to the radio for the news and gets out of bed by herself every morning.
He attributes his health and longevity purely to good fortune and the active lifestyle he led in his younger years: “Whether I live a long life or a short one, there's nothing I can do about it,” he said when he became a Guinness World Records holder earlier this year.
“I don't feel that age, I don't get excited about it, maybe that's why I got to that age,” he added. “Like anything else, I just take it in stride. I have no idea how I've lived so long.”
“I can't think of any special secrets. I was very active as a child, I walked a lot, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it. But to me, I'm no different to anyone else. Absolutely not.”
Reflecting on his long life, he said perhaps the key is to eat everything in moderation. “I eat what's given to me and so does everyone else. I'm not on any special diet,” he said.
“If you drink too much, eat too much, walk too much, or do too much of anything, you will end up suffering.”
Tinniswood has received a birthday card from the late Queen every year since turning 100 in 2012. Though he was born 14 years after the Queen, Tinniswood outlived her reign – and also outlived the tenures of 24 British prime ministers.
When asked how he has seen the world change over his lifetime, he replied: “The world is always changing in that sense. It's kind of a continuing experience. It's getting a little bit better, but we're not there yet. We're moving in the right direction.”
When asked what advice he would give to the younger generation, he said: “Whether you're learning something or teaching someone, always do your best. Give it your all. If you're not, it's not worth bothering about.”
The oldest man on record is Japan's Jiroemon Kimura, who died in 2013 at the age of 116 years and 54 days.
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The world's oldest person is a 116-year-old Japanese woman, Tomiko Itooka, who took over the title from Maria Branyas-Morella, who died this month at the age of 117 years and 168 days in a nursing home in Olot, northeastern Spain.
The oldest known recorded person was Jeanne Louise Calment, a French woman who died in 1997 at the age of 122 years and 164 days.
This also happened in 1912…
King George V was on the British throne, the British Empire was estimated to cover one-fifth of the world, and the Liberal Lord Asquith was Prime Minister.
In the United States, New Mexico and Arizona became the 47th and 48th states, respectively, and Alaska was established as an organized corporate territory of the United States by act of Congress.
The Republic of China was founded in January, bringing to an end more than 2,000 years of imperial rule.
Also in January, the British Antarctic Expedition, led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, reached the South Pole, only to discover that the Norwegian party, led by Roald Amundsen, was 34 days ahead.
In April, the Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic, killing more than 1,600 people.
That same month, Dracula author Bram Stoker died in London at the age of 64.
Blackpool's famous illuminations were lit for the first time in September to mark the first royal visit to the town of Princess Louise, the sixth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
