The key to a long, healthy life: "cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women"

[Cool Dood]

Honours for Britain's oldest man

Britain's oldest surviving war veteran has celebrated his 110th birthday at the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne.

Henry Allingham was presented with a letter of good wishes from the Queen by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown at the five-star seafront hotel.

In the past Mr Allingham has put the key to his old age down to "cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women".

Mr Allingham's birthday present from the chancellor was a bottle of House of Commons whisky and a copy of the budget statement delivered in the year he was born, 1896.

As the gifts were handed over, Mr Brown joked: "I think the tax on whisky was a bit lower then."