112 candles for Europe's oldest man

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — Europe's oldest man, World War I veteran Henry Allingham, marked his 112th birthday on Friday by enjoying a flypast of fighter aircraft from the Battle of Britain.

The Briton watched from a wheelchair as a vintage Lancaster bomber flanked by two Spitfires roared over a Royal Air Force base in Lincolnshire.

Born in 1896, when queen Victoria was on the British throne and the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Allingham saw active service in the Battle of Jutland in World War I and was one of the first members of the RAF.

In civilian life, he worked for carmaker Ford.

Now resident in a care home for blind former military personnel, he said he struggled to explain why he was still in good health.

"I don't think there's...