HE has survived four years in a German prison camp, two crash landings during the Second World War, a major car crash and cancer – but 100-year-old Bernard Davis says he has had a ‘normal life’.

Bernard, who still drives, plays snooker and has a Facebook account, celebrated his 100th birthday in style last week in Cirencester with almost 80 guests.

In the run up to the Second World War, Bernard decided to join the RAF rather than be drafted and began his service just before the fighting broke out in 1939.

While operating the radio of a Wellington bomber on his first operation, Bernard’s plane made a crash landing on a racecourse in Gibraltar but, miraculously, the whole team walked away without serious injuries.

Just two years later, in 1941, his plane crashed in Egypt after taking flak over Benghazi and he and his crew, who all survived, were captured by Rommel’s army and sent to Germany.

Bernard spent three years and eight months in Stalag Luft III, a prison camp made famous by the events portrayed in the film The Great Escape.

He recalls the war vividly and described risks he took as a prisoner, including smuggling typewriters past German officers so they would not discover records of secret messages sent around the camp.

His taste for adventure did not end with his experiences during the conflict, as he went on to travel around the world for his country during the Cold War.

Bernard has never had it easy – he survived a major car crash before the war and overcame colon cancer 12 years ago – but he is not one for sob stories and believes his vitality is down to his positive attitude.

“I’ve lived a fairly normal life,” he said. “I think it is mostly mental as I genuinely wasn’t taking account or noticing my age until quite recently.”

After all the danger of his early years, Bernard understandably later took a desk job  – ‘flying the mahogany bomber’ , as he calls it – and met his wife Audrey, 88, in Cambridge.

Bernard – originally from Southampton – and Audrey moved to Cirencester in 1974. They have three children, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.