A High Barnet centenarian who is often seen out and about on his four-wheel mobility scooter shopping in the High Street is still receiving congratulations weeks after celebrating his birthday.
A framed and signed letter from Arsenal football club is the latest addition to the messages sent to David John Hall who was 100 last October.
He made doubly sure he received a congratulatory card from King Charles by taking along his birth certificate to the constituency office of MP Theresa Villiers.
Depending on the weather, Mr Hall sets out regularly on his mobility scooter from his home in The Meadway.
He either ventures uphill towards the town centre, and along the High Street as far as the Paper Shop to say hello to proprietor Vince Gadhavi or he heads towards New Barnet to visit his chemist and to shop at the Sainsbury’s superstore.
Mr Hall and his wife Lucreatia, who is 88, moved from Highgate to The Meadway in 1998. He has great affection for High Barnet, Hadley Green and Monken Hadley Common.
“As a boy we used to catch the tram from Highgate to Barnet Church and walk up towards the woods at Hadley. I remember it all so well. We had such fun. And, then when I was older, I was always cycling all around the area.
“What we love so much about living in High Barnet is the open skyscape – just blue sky, with no massive blocks of flats in the way.”
Mr Hall is great company and an amusing raconteur. When he was visited by the Mayor of Barnet, Councillor Alison Moore, she stayed for two hours talking to him about his early life in Highgate and his military service in the Second World War.
He started out at the age of 17 by signing up for the Home Guard. “I was probably even younger than Private Pike in Dad’s Army and it was just like it was in the sitcom.
“I was sent with the Home Guard to defend the water works in Stoke Newington and Hornsey.
“We had training at the Bisley shooting range and I was issued with an Enfield rifle…I think it was a 0.33.”
In 1942 he joined the Royal Corps of Signals in the First British Infantry Division and saw service as a signalman in Algeria and Tunisia before landing in Italy at Anzio beach.
He completed a radio mechanics course in Egypt and spent 18 months in Palestine, before being demobbed in 1947. He was awarded both the Africa Star and Italy Star.
Mr Hall started out as a laboratory technician and spent most his career with a scientific instrument maker in Camden Town.
As his 100th birthday approached, he was determined to make sure he received a card from the King. Setting out on his mobility scooter, a present eight months ago from his son Dominic, he called at the constituency office of Theresa Villiers to check out the procedure.
He returned with his birth certificate to confirm his age and Ms Villiers’ staff completed the necessary form on his behalf.
A gift from the Mayor of Barnet was a diamond shaped piece of cut glass embossed with Barnet Council’s coat of arms.
His framed letter of congratulations from Arsenal was signed by the club’s first team manager, Mikel Arteta, who said he had read that Mr Hall was a “passionate Arsenal supporter”.
“I too am very passionate and excited about our continued journey together,” said Mr Arteta. The letter was followed up by a mention of his birthday in the Arsenal programme.
Theresa Villiers said it had been a pleasure helping to ensure that her constituent David Hall received a birthday message from the King. "We owe so much to Mr Hall's wartime generation. It is wonderful that he has reached this incredible hundred year milestone. I am not surprised to hear that warm tributes have been flowing in ever since."
