Pitstone great-great-grandfather celebrates his 100th birthday

William Charles Ruck, affectionately known as ‘Bill’, enjoyed a small party on Saturday, August 8, complete with a delicious cake and a birthday card from the Queen.

The great-great-grandfather has lived in the same bungalow in Pitstone for over 60 years, but was originally born in Toronto in 1920.

His daughter, Ruby, 75, said: “It was absolutely brilliant. You could see the sparkle in his eye when all the old stories came out about Canada.

“Dad’s grandad, Albert, from Wales, took his family out there in 1906. Dad lived on a farm in Ottawa, and their neighbours were Native Americans who lived in tipis.

“Dad and my uncle Lloyd were playing in the barn when it caught fire and my dad’s ‘Uncle Bill’ ran in and got them out in the nick of time! But everything else, the animals, perished.”

Luckily, Bill’s father, Lewis Jack Ruck (known as Jack), was able to get a job at Ford Motors, in Michigan.

When the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit to Windsor, Canada, was built, five-year-old Bill was selected to walk on from Canada and shake hands with a little boy from America.

However, during the Depression Jack was made redundant and took the family back to England, first to Devon and then to Dagenham.

During the war, Bill was in the Home Guard in Dunstable and met his future wife, Mary, known as ‘Mae’, from Ireland. She had come to work in England and ended up looking after troops on leave at a hostel in the town.

Bill and Mary were married in 1943 and had four children, Ruby, Brenda, Susan and Sean, and moved to the bungalow in Pitstone in 1957.

Bill worked for Vauxhall until he took voluntary redundancy in 1971 and the couple enjoyed many happy years together in the village until Mary died in 2002.

Ruby added: “He was a lovely, lovely dad, always hands on, and I never knew him to have a day off work. He used to take us up to the Downs and up to the chalk cutting. He loves his garden and he has always grown vegetables. He’s very determined and his neighbours all look out for him.”