What the secret is. the secret of living? there isn t one that i know of. you just live. my birthday didn t mean anything to me then or even now. you re making more fuss of it than i ever did. born in bradford in 1918 during world war i, he then served in london during the blitz before joining the allied campaign in north africa. archive: the axis forces - in the desert are in full retreat. there s no shadow of doubt about it, the enemy are on the run. and then it was on to italy to maintain tanks. later in life, he became a pilot. so where better to celebrate his birthday than blackpool airfield? met with a guard of honour by serving royal electrical and mechanical engineers. ernest served as one of them at raf lyneham all those years ago. it s fantastic because there s not many founder members left now. so, obviously, ernest is one of the oldest veterans