FORMER Scots Guard Jack Craggs was given a special treat when he celebrated his 90th birthday this week.

The pensioner was serenaded by piper Mel Clement at Devonshire House Nursing Home, in West Auckland.

Mr Craggs is the oldest member of the Durham and Yorkshire branch of the Scots Guards Association and was joined by fellow members Norman Thompson, Billy Woyka, Ivan Hedley and Peter Wheadon, who visited the home in his honour.

Mr Craggs joined the Scots Guards in 1928, when he was 16, and served in Palestine then North Africa, where he was taken prisoner.

He was a PoW in Italy, Austria and Germany. At one point he and some fellow prisoners escaped. They surrendered to what they thought were Russian troops, but who turned out to be Germans.

Cousin Margaret Bond, 78, said: "The Army was Jack's life. He used to go to camp with the Territorial Army when he was seven or eight."