Yet another Royal message for 106 year-old David

Clydebank care home resident David Niel has received his seventh message of congratulations from Buckingham Palace after reaching the amazing milestone of his 106^th birthday.

Originally from Chester le Street in County Durham, David became a civil servant and moved to Clydeside in the 70s for work.

Born in 1919, the sprightly Army veteran was called up into the Royal Army Service Corps at the beginning of World War Two.

He served in North Africa and Italy and drove Army lorries as the Allies moved across the Mediterranean and up towards Rome.

His job changed when Naples fell and he became a clerk in the new military authority which ran the country until elections were held in 1946, a year after the war ended.

He retired in Clydebank and is now an active resident of the Kingsacre Care Home in Duntocher, where staff say he is always chatting and smiling.

David puts his longevity down to never smoking or drinking alcohol and eating a bowl of cornflakes mixed with a sliced banana for breakfast every morning.

At his special birthday party, he was presented with a card bearing a congratulatory message from King Charles and Queen Camilla by Deputy Lieutenant, Colonel Mike Edwards OBE.

The card is his seventh birthday communication from Buckingham Palace, after receiving a message from the late Queen Elizabeth in 2019 on his 100^th birthday and a further two from her before she passed away in 2022, her Platinum Jubilee year.

David has now received four messages of congratulation from the King and Queen.

Also in attendance was Councillor Karen Murray Conaghan, Provost of West Dunbartonshire Council, who presented David with a vase of flowers, and David’s son Colin.

When asked how he would cope with blowing out so many candles on his birthday cake, David said, ‘I played the trombone in the Salvation Army band for 30 years. I don't think I will have any problems.’