Man who brought wristwatch back from Dunkirk celebrates his 95th birthday in Kingswood

Stuart Runnalls, who serviced military vehicles during the Second World War, turned 95 at Kingswood Court care home in Warren Lodge Drive, Kingswood, on September 4.

Just before the Battle of Dunkirk, Mr Runnalls said his unit were tasked with building concrete guard posts, known as pillboxes, but were forced to retreat and used their tipper trucks to transport retreating foot soldiers.

He said: "I bought a wristwatch for my girlfriend from one of the shops in Dunkirk before it closed. Everything started shutting down then. The power supply and water were cut off."

Mr Runnalls went for several days without food or sleep and stayed on a beach where bombs sank into the "very fine" sand without exploding.

He finally boarded a naval vessel from a jetty- one of the thousands of boats that flocked to Dunkirk and rescued more than 300,000 troops from the shore. Winston Churchill described the evacuation as "a miracle".

Mr Runnalls said: "All we wanted to do was sleep. It was dark by the time I got back to Dunkirk. I saw the queues but I didn't see any small boats. I must have got away quite early.

"I didn't want to queue in the sea because I had this wristwatch. I got it home and gave it to my girlfriend and married her of course."

He rose to the rank of sergeant in the Royal Army Service Corp by the end of the war and back home he ran Banstead Motors and Runnalls Engineers.

His wife of 67 years, Joan, died five years ago at the care home where he moved half a year ago. They had two sons and lived in Great Tattenhams, Banstead.

Ironically he said the wristwatch never worked very well, adding: "It never was very successful, a bit of a waste of time."