CENTENARIAN Ken Hardy was thrown a very special party by his neighbours to celebrate his 100th birthday.

Ken, who was born on July 21, 1916, has no surviving family so when it came to celebrating this momentous occasion it was his neighbours in Highcliffe who stepped up to give him the party he deserved.

After growing up in Kennington in Oxford Ken joined the war effort as an engineer during the Second World War fitting fighter planes with radios and radar machines.

He eventually moved to Dorset in the 1960s and married his first and only wife at the age of 54 which is when the couple settled in Field Way, Highcliffe, where he still lives independently today.

Christchurch Mayor Trish Jamieson was one of dozens of people invited to Ken's party on Thursday, July 21.

She explained that because he didn't have any family his neighbours got together to throw him a birthday party.

"It was a really lovely party with all of Ken's friends and neighbours," said Cllr Jamieson.

"It was a real pleasure to meet him and celebrate this milestone. He's an incredible man who may not be terribly mobile any more but is still extremely mentally alert."

When asked Ken put his longevity down to cycling and running and keeping fit.

In 1916, when Ken was born, Britain was half way through the First World War, King George V was on the throne and a loaf of bread cost less than three pence.