Tea runs were how it started for Stanley Hills. By 14, he was on the De Havilland Mosquito design team, and before long he was building parts for one of the war’s most versatile aircraft.

Mr Hills, from Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex, celebrated his 100th birthday with close family on Saturday.

“I had no ambitions to do anything special,” he said, adding that he just knew he had to work.

“I needed a job and that is where I started. I was a teaboy and was on the telephone exchange and that was it, my first job,” he said.

He quickly moved up and ended up making parts for the planes.

“I felt very confident in what I was doing, even though I was 14,” he said.

The Mosquito was built from spruce and birch plywood, and was nicknamed the “Wooden Wonder” and “Mossie”.

At 18, Mr Hills enlisted in the Army as a private and recalled fighting on the front line.

“Those years were good for me, although I was in the war,” he said.

“[The Army] did shape my life. Being a soldier made me more confident to do things [and] taught me discipline which carried on throughout my life.”

After the war, he trained to be a photographer and documented rubber imports arriving at Canary Wharf.

Mr Hills spent his 100th birthday in the garden with afternoon tea and a barbecue.

“I don’t feel 100. I feel about 55, something like that,” he said.

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