FIVE million British men served their country during the First World War - now only 14 remain. Two of those men met yesterday to swap 215 years of stories.

At 109, Henry Allingham is Britain's oldest man.

He visited the region yesterday to meet 106-year-old Philip Mayne.

Mr Mayne, of The Terrace nursing home, in Richmond, North Yorkshire, is believed to be the oldest man in the North-East.

The visit was organised by the World War One Veterans Association.

The chairman of the organisation, Dennis Goodwin, is accompanying Mr Allingham as he tours the UK meeting all the Great War veterans still living.

Of the 14 that remain, 11 live in Britain and three live in Australia.

Mr Allingham, of Eastbourne, east Sussex, signed up when he was 18 in the hope of finding "adventure".

He trained as a mechanic with the Royal Naval Air Service and was sent to the Western Front, later serving at Ypres and at the Somme.

Mr Mayne was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers.

However, the war ended two months before he was due to be posted and he never saw action.

After the war, he graduated from Cambridge University.

He came to the North-East to take a job at ICI in Billingham, where he rose to become technical director.

During his visit yesterday, Mr Allingham gave Mr Mayne an original copy of the Mechanical World Year Book for 1924, because the pair were both engineers during the war.

The old soldiers also discussed their mutual love of golf -Mr Mayne played until he was 80 while Mr Allingham played until he was 93.

Mr Mayne, who eats a banana a day, said: "I have never had too much to drink and have always cycled, swam and gardened - I cycled 30 miles when I was 90."

Mr Allingham joked that the secret of his longevity was cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women, although he later confessed that he only drank the occasional whisky and was happily married to the same woman, Dorothy, for 53 years.

He said: "The trick is to look after yourself and always know your limitations."

* The pair have several years until they can be declared the world's oldest person. The record belongs to 116-year-old Maria Esther Capovilla, from Ecuador, who was born on September 14, 1889.

She was confirmed as the oldest living person last month, after her family sent her birth certificate to the Guinness Book of World Records.