A FIRST World War veteran died as millions prepared to gather to pay tribute to his fallen comrades.

Tom Kirk, 106, was one of a handful of survivors from the Great War.

The doctor, who served in the Royal Navy, had been invited to meet the Queen at Remembrance celebrations at the weekend.

But it was announced he died peacefully at his home in Woolsington, Newcastle, last Tuesday, where he had been cared for by his daughter, June Walker.

The grandfather-of-seven and great-grandfather of 11 was born in 1899 in Hartlepool. He died two days before the 87th anniversary of peace being declared.

Mrs Walker, 77, said: "It is very sad, but it is something the family were expecting. He was very old and hardly able to walk or see, and was losing his memory. But he was aware of everything around him.

"He would have been too ill to go to London, so he would have watched the remembrance services on TV at the weekend. He was housebound really and hadn't been able to go out for a long time."

Mr Kirk was called up in 1917 from studies at Newcastle Medical School to join the Royal Navy, in Portsmouth. At the end of the war, he returned to Newcastle to complete his medical training.

For 40 years, Mr Kirk was a GP in Lincolnshire with wife Peggy, a Newcastle girl he met at college.

On retirement, he moved back to the North-East and delivered Meals on Wheels in the Stocksfield area. He also wrote three books.