A MAN who dedicated his life to teaching celebrates reaching the grand old age of 102 in a Worcestershire care home today.

Richard Clay, who grew up in Hallow, near Worcester, will celebrate the milestone by having a special birthday lunch with family and friends.

The pensioner, who was still driving a car until the age of 97, will also toast his special day by sipping a glass of wine with 63-year old daughter Jane.

It marks another impressive notch on the scale for Mr Clay, who climbed the ranks in education before retiring from the profession more than 40 years ago.

He won a scholarship to Worcester's Royal Grammar School as a youngster, before going to London to train as a teacher.

After teaching at a school in the capital, he worked for the Government as a teaching inspector in the Lake District.

After working with immigrants in the early 1960s in Birmingham, he returned to Worcestershire to live in Droitwich, where he retired at the age of 60.

He puts his longevity down to enjoying an active life in retirement and taking plenty of exercise to stay healthy, including working in the garden.

He was happily married to his wife Trudy for 64 years before her death at the 89.

Hazel Sparks, activity co-ordinator at the Rashwood Care Home, Wychbold, near Droitwich, said Mr Clay still entertained staff with stories from a bygone era.

She said: "Over the past few years, Richard has become increasingly frail, but he is still determined and positive about life.

"Richard still enjoys people and socialising, as by nature he is a gregarious person. He remains an articulate gentleman with lots of stories from an almost forgotten era.

"Without doubt he is a person from a more gentle world than that which we know today."