109 OLDEST MAN IN THE MIDLANDS.

Byline: BY ADAM ASPINALL

HE survived two world wars and has seen 26 prime ministers come and go from office.

And next week George Rice will cement his title as the oldest man in the Midlands when he celebrates his 109th birthday.

Yet the great-grandad has one word to explain his amazing longevity: luck.

George, a resident at Tandy Court retirement home in Birmingham, was born in the same year Marconi made the first wireless communication and Bram Stoker's novel Dracula was published.

He joined the Army as a teenager in 1914 and dodged bullets and bombs while serving in the muddy fields of northern France during the Great War.

But George said he never feared death - then or now - because of his strong faith.

'When it comes, it comes but I feel safe in the hands of Jesus,' he says. 'I wait for Him to come back again and take me into the life everlasting.

'I'm very lucky to have enjoyed such a long life.'

George was part of the Duke of Wellington regiment during WW1and was trained to use a Lewis machine gun. It could fire 600 rounds a minute and was dubbed 'the Belgian Rattlesnake'.

He crossed into Boulogne in early 1918 and recalls: 'We went into the middle of France where the frontline was.

'The Germans were halfway into France and we were chasing them back, chasing them right back into Germany. We did it in 1918 and then we did it again in 1945.'

He recounts the horror of the battlefield, the noise and the shrapnel and tells of a chilling encounter with the enemy when his Rattlesnake saved his life.'

His section had secured a ridge and dug in, waiting for the counter-attack.

'The enemy came at us from nowhere,' he said. 'They had fixed bayonets - they wanted to bayonet me.

'I kept the Lewis gun steady, pressed the trigger and kept it on. The Germans ran on to my bullets and I shot them all.'

Eight German soldiers died. After the war, George underwent a deep spiritual conversion but he does not flinch when recalling the killings.

'It was just my job as a soldier,' he says.

'You were there to fight the enemy. Feelings didn't come into it.

After peace was declared, George fell ill with trench fever and was left behind to recuperate while his battalion went home. He was eventually shipped back to his home city Newcastle, where he was demobbed while in hospital.

A few years later, he moved to Birmingham to work at the Austin Rover plant as a copper fitter and in 1928 he married the love of his life, Elsie.

The couple had four children, nine grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. They enjoyed life together until Elsie sadly died in 1997, at the age of 93.

In the same year George and 160 other Great War veterans were awarded the Legion D'Honneur, France's highest decoration, to mark the 80th anniversary of the Armistice. George now passes his time by attending church or playing his beloved harmonica.

When we visited him he gave us stirring renditions of Colonel Bogie and It's A Long Way To Tipperary! Carer Samita Virdi, 21, says: 'George is a real laugh and I hope I'm half as fit as him when I reach 108!

'He is very popular with the other residents and everybody knows him.

'He takes no medication and only started using a walking frame 18 months ago. That just goes to show how tough he is

IN THE YEAR GEORGE WAS BORN

The opening ceremony of the first-ever modern Olympic Games is held in Athens. It has been more than 1,500 years since the Roman Emperor Theodosius I banned the games for being linked to paganism.

The first X-ray photo is taken by HL Smith. But it won't be until 1908 that Major John Hall-Edwards pioneers the use of X-rays for medical purposes - in his laboratory in Birmingham.

Warwickshire Cricket Club is on the end of a hammering by Yorkshire in the County Championship. Yorkshire's batsmen notch up a stunning first innings total of 887 - still a Championship record.

An earthquake and tsunami hit Sanriku in Japan, killing more than 27,000 people.

Aston Villa clinch the league championship and enter a period of dominance in English football which will see them win the double the next season. Arsenal are having a tough time of it, falling to their record defeat, 8-0 away to Loughborough.

Skookum Jim Mason, George Carmack and Dawson Charlie find gold in the Klondike in the Yukon territory of north-west Canada. Within a year, 100,000 hopefuls travel to the area in what becomes known as the Gold Rush.

The shortest war ever fought ends in victory for British troops, who defeat rival forces from Zanzibar in just 38 minutes.

William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan to become the 25th US President. He will become famous for conquering Cuba, Hawaii and the Philippines but will be shot dead in 1901 by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.

Wallis Simpson, the American woman who will later force a British king to give up the throne for love, is born. Edward VIII later abdicates in 1938 to marry Simpson, by then a divorcee.

The opera La Bohem by Puccini premieres in Turin. It will go on to become one of the most performed operas in the world

CAPTION(S):

1896 VILLA WIN THE DOUBLE; 1906 AUSTIN'S FIRST OUTING; 1916 SOMME SLAUGHTER; 1926 PRINCESS ELIZABETH BORN; 1936 MRS SIMPSON IS BORN; MEMORIES: The Sunday Mercury in the year George was born and George with the Legion D'Honneur, France's highest decoration and playing his beloved harmonica. When we visited him he gave us stirring renditions of Colonel Bogie and It's A Long Way To Tipperary; 1946 KRAY TWINS ON THE UP; 1956 JAGUAR'S NEW D-TYPE; 1966 WORLD CUP WINNERS; 1976 QUEEN OPENS THE NEC; 1986 RIOT AT ST ANDREW'S; 1996 DUKE GETS DIVORCED; 2005 HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGE; PICTURES BY ADAM FRADGLEY