Former engine designer Jack marks 105th birthday with party

Last week he marked his milestone with big band music and a sing along at Leylands Residential Home in Penn

Mr Brown, who was born in Bath before moving to Bilston in the 1930s, is described as a 'hardworking, intelligent and artistic' man by his family. It was in 1937 that Mr Brown met the love of his life Grace and they got married at Bath Abbey.

He then started a family in Wolverhampton and had four children – Gilly, Christopher, Michael and Lesley.

Gilly recalls her years growing up in their three-bedroomed house in Penn.

She said: "I remember our house was on Penn Road but in the 1940s it was surrounded by fields. There were fields in front of the house and behind and just one other road nearby which was Linton Road. My father would grow vegetables in our garden. But we were in what was the countryside then and the cows would eat his cabbages."

During the war years he would be driven down from the city to Gloucester to design engines for planes that were used in combat.

Once the war was over he worked for a number of companies across Wolverhampton before finishing his career with Caven Engineering.

Gilly, who lives in Tettenhall, said: "He has always been a very good father to us. He always had a lot of time for us and encouraged us. You could ask him any question and he had the answer. He is a very intelligent man as well as hardworking and artistic.

"There was nothing you could ask him that he didn't know.

"He loved photography and would go away with my mother to the countryside and take photographs.

"My father would go to each town along the River Severn and would compile facts from towns that the river ran beside. He could have written a book, but it was his hobby."

She added: "My father was always a very independent person. When my mother passed away in 2001 he lived on his own for 10 years. He was in his 90s.

"It was good to see him with a smile on his face for his birthday. He's such a gentleman and a charming person."