WWII veteran Lindsay Boyd turned 100 this week, celebrating with a slap-up party with family and friends and a note from the Queen.
Mr Boyd is no slouch, still cooking and shopping for himself.
He lived with wife Joyce until she passed on just last year after almost 67 years together.
Mr Boyd said it was an honour to make such a milestone.
He was a battalion runner in Darwin during WWII, arriving just in time for the first Japanese bombing attack.
Having runners was a reliable but dangerous way of maintaining communication between companies.
Mr Boyd said he had just run a message when the attack began, with three flights of nine planes.
“I was at a tent and looked up and saw nine planes,’’ he said, thinking they were US airforce. “Then it was boom, boom, boom.’’
Granddaughter Alexis Boyd said Mr Boyd was renowned for his dry wit, funny sayings and gentlemanly conduct.
“He’s the gentleman by which all others are judged,’’ Ms Boyd said.
Mr Boyd was born on a wheat farm at Wycheproof, Victoria, 1916, in the middle of WWI. He was one of seven brothers.
He and brother Clarrie left Melbourne for the NT in January 1942, entering the thick of the action.
“The journey from Melbourne to Alice Spring took approximately one week,’’ he said.
They then travelled by truck along rough dirt roads to Darwin, with the soliders coated heavily in bulldust blown into the open vehicles. The trip which takes about four hours by plane these days took just on two weeks.
Mr Boyd said it was a grim time in Darwin, with everyone expecting the Japanese to invade.
Conditions were tough and Australia was struggling to find enough men and resources to fight the Japanese advance. One message he carried to each company was an order that each man be issued with only 10 rounds of ammunition.
Mr Boyd said the devastation from bombing was amazing and the city was deserted as people left, fearing for their lives.
He was discharged in 1946. After leaving the army, he worked in general retail, delicatessens and fruit shops.
Ms Boyd said her grandfather was a hopeless romantic, having met and married her grandmother all within three months.
