100th birthday celebrations for brave WW2 soldier from Harrogate village who fought at Battle of Monte Cassino

Mr Ernest Tindall, who was injured and later taken prisoner during the Battle of Monte Casino during the Allied push into Italy in 1944, was surprised by friends and family with an an afternoon tea at the Masons Arms pub, to mark his historic milestone.

But, unbeknown to Ernest, they also organised for a group of veterans to join the celebrations and to help him relive his military exploits.

Nowadays, the Second World War veteran lives in the quiet village of Bishop Monkton, lying five miles south of Ripon.

Nearly 80 years ago there was little tranquility to be found during one of the most brutal and costly battles of the Second World War when it took four months of Allied attacks to break the German defence line, resulting in 55,000 Allied casualties and the catastrophic destruction of the famous monastry.

Ernest was just 18 when he joined the Army in 1941, serving with the 5th Northamptonshire Regiment, now part of the Royal Anglian Regiment..

In May 1944 he was involved in the Battle of Monte Cassino, a crucial encounter as the Allies pushed north into Italy towards the end of the Second World War.

In December of that year, he was injured in a grenade attack and taken prisoner.

He spent the remainder of the war in a prisoner of war camp in Austria.

Ernest was one of ten children, eight of whom served in and survived the Second World War.

Ernie is the last of his siblings still alive.

Several ex-servicemen living in the village got together to add a military flavour to his birthday.

A military historian from the nearby Army Foundation College in Harrogate gave a short talk at the surprise 100th birthday event about the campaigns Ernest was involved in.

The veterans organised for military memorabilia to be brought to the celebration, including a new Royal Anglian beret for Ernest.