A CARLISLE man has shrugged off the significance of receiving his seventh birthday card from the Queen.

Jack McDowall, who celebrated his 106th birthday on Friday, lives at Barn Close Residential Home in Stanwix.

Asked about whether he thought the day was special, he replied: “No, it is just the day I was born.”

Spending most of his life as a joiner, he was then called up to join the war effort in the Second World War, landing on the shores of Arromanches shortly after D-Day.

“I left school when I was 14 and I joined a local joiner firm,” he explained.

“I was told I needed to serve six years to be become a full-time joiner.”

Being a joiner wasn’t easy, according to Jack.

“Sometimes there was no work at all. From then on it was a difficult life, because there was no work.

“You could be out of work for weeks.”

It was what happened next that sticks in Jack’s memory, even today.

“I was called to Fleetwood for weeks of training. We used to do all sorts of exercises to see our capabilities.

“Some people like me were chosen to be drivers.

“As the time went on and the young drivers became competent drivers, I was kept on.”

He then moved onto a depot in Aldershot, where he continued to train while part of the reserved occupation.

In 1941 he was called up to the Royal Engineers and after several years there he landed in France.

His son Don McDowall, 75, explained his father’s role in the war.

He said: “He landed in Normandy after D-Day and was in a group of engineers whose job was to clear the road to let the traffic through.

“He went from Normandy, through Belgium and then onto Germany and Berlin.”

Because of the war Don was three years of age when he met his father for the first time.

“I called him Jack until I was eight, because he hadn’t been there.

“But after that he used to take me places and spent a lot of time with me and consequently he did the same with his grandsons.

“One of his grandsons has taken their kids to the same places as he went with his grandfather.”

Don continued: “He always had plenty of time to do things with me and things with his grandchildren.”

Jack has only lived at Barn Close for a matter of months, having lived independently since his wife died 20 years ago.

He was also still driving until he was almost 105 year’s of age.

Summing up Jack, care assistant at the home, Georgia Goodger said: “He is amazing.

“It is nice to get some insight from someone of his age group.

“He is the oldest person we have here and the oldest since I have been here.”

She added: “I just love how bubbly he is is.

“He just takes it in his stride.”

Jack received a birthday card from the Queen, the Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd, and a signed card from Carlisle United.