WEARING a multi-coloured waistcoat and a badge emblazoned with ‘100’ is Chingford’s latest centenarian, who is very much “full of life”.

Not many 100-year-olds can hold a room like George Rudd, whose booming voice fills his kitchen as he begins sharing his story on his birthday (April 11).

Born during the First World War in 1917 to a working class family in Hackney, George admits he was a “beautiful baby” who his four sisters could not help but love.

As a 20-year-old in 1937, the prospect of an all-out world war loomed large and George signed up to the Navy without even knowing how to swim, a feat he never managed to master.

Just as the Second World War began gripping the nation, George was sent to India to be stationed with a small troupe in Bombay, now known as Mumbai.

He said: “I could have stayed there and waited out the whole war but the thought of losing loved ones was too much so I went back.”

Returning home, George was sent on many missions in the Navy, during which many never returned.

By a stroke of fortune and George’s talent, he survived certain death by passing a Naval officer’s test.

His friend did not pass the test and returned to the HMS Salvia, which weeks later was torpedoed and sunk on Christmas Eve, 1941, by a German U-boat during the Battle of Greece, killing all aboard.

George would later earn an Arctic Star medal from “Uncle Joe” Stalin for his dangerous work in the Arctic Convoys, which were described as “the worst journey in the world”.

The deadly missions saw George deliver essential supplies on ships bound for the biting cold of Soviet Union’s northern ports.

After the war George said he and many other veterans were taken “pity on” and offered jobs by companies to “show they were appreciative of our efforts”.

As he was taught typing and shorthand before at school, George began taking work as a shorthand writer and in 1953, he joined Hansard in the House of Commons.

Working for Hansard, George took down transcripts of speeches from politicians spanning Winston Churchill’s second Government to Margaret Thatcher's until he retired in 1982.

A keen observer of politics to this day, don’t “get him started on Brexit”, his favourite political moment remains the introduction of the National Health Service during Clement Atlee’s Labour Government.

With a tear in his eye, he said: “They never thought they could do it. That’s what I respect.”

George has one son and has married twice, his latest wedding with wife Fe came as he turned 92 in 2009, the same year he stopped driving.

The self-confessed “ladies man” admitted he’s been “rubbing woman up the wrong way” for most of his life, but fears he won’t “have the time for it now”.

He said: “There is no secret to long life, you just wake up and enjoy your days.

“I got on with most people really well, it doesn’t matter about their colour or nationality.

“I pity those without a sense of humour. Always be ready to laugh at yourself.

“I was always happy, even when I did not believe it.

“If you laugh the whole world laughs with you, if you cry, you cry alone.”

Sitting nearby, George’s niece Barbara Renn adds with a smile: “How very original George.”