“All my friends, all of our family marvel at him,” says the daughter-in-law of 105-year-old war hero Tony Johnson.
The World War Two veteran lives independently at his home in Worsley, Greater Manchester and each day scours share prices like a city trader.
He celebrated turning 105 on Sunday by opening a card from the King and Queen and later hosted a party for 52 people at his local cricket club.
Having landed at Gold Beach in Normandy, France, just after the D-Day landings in 1944, Mr Johnson was awarded the French Legion of Honour in 2020 for his service.
His experiences of World War Two do not seem to have phased him, his thoughts were still on the financial element, it was “just another war really”, adding: “There was no financial gain from it.”
He then admitted with a chuckle: “That would have been nice though.”
Having started work aged 16 as an office boy in Trafford Park, he went on to become a director of a building firm in Salford.
Mr Johnson retired in 1984 but makes sure he keeps occupied and regularly turns to his daily paper to complete crosswords and puzzles.
He also uses an iPad, computer and has a Facebook account but admitted to “not posting very often”.
Daughter-in-law Sandra Johnson, 60, said: “All my friends, all of our family marvel at him because when he was 100 we were amazed at how agile and adept he is at everything including finances… he just keeps going on and on.”
Turning the pages of the Daily Mail at his home, which he bought for just over £2,000 in the 1960s, Mr Johnson reads the financial pages and keeps his eyes on his stocks and shares.
“I do it to exercise my brain,” he told the BBC.
“I read the business pages every morning to see what’s going on in the world.
“And I look at the stock market every day as well, but at the moment we are having a bit of a dip.”
