By Cherry Wilson

cherry.wilson@essnmedia.co.uk

A great-grandfather who has celebrated his 100th birthday has put his long life down a good family and "being kind to everybody".

Charles Harwood, of Woodside, received letters of congratulations from the Prime Minister and the Queen on his milestone birthday on March 6.

Mr Harwood, who has three children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, moved to Croydon, from Balham, in 1951.

A former bricklayer, he is a member of the Coleby Court Activity Centre, on Morland Road, and Croydon Voluntary Association for the Blind, on Wellesley Road.

Asked what the secret to a long and happy life is, he said: "I think it's being kind to everybody.

"Treating others as you would want to be treated yourself and being brought up in a family that's decent. We weren't well off but I was brought up by kind parents."

Mr Harwood added that it was a "wonderful feeling" to live to 100.

He said: "I never expected to get so old. At 65 I said I would like to get to 100 and here I am now.

"I've had a wonderful life and a good family."

Mr Harwood was a firefighter during the Second World War and spent the war years fighting some of the biggest blazes across London.

After the war he returned to bricklaying and moved with his late wife Florence to Croydon because it was like living in "the countryside".

Mr Harwood, who still lives independently in his own home, celebrated his birthday with a party at the Coleby Court Activity Centre last Friday.

His daughter Ann, 61, described her father as an "amazing man".

"He's the sort of person that for all his life has cared for others and looked after others," she said. "He's not got a nasty bone in his body.

"He's a really good father to all his children. He still looks after us."