JACK Lock had a number of close shaves during the Second World War. Perhaps the closest was while he was helping to push a boat into the water on the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940.

"When we got to the beaches we were told to get into batches of 50," said Jack, from Faversham.

"On the beach there was a boat high and dry. The captain told us to put our stuff on board, and when the tide came in, with us pushing and with him using the engine, we could probably get off into deeper water.

"As we pushed, there was a chap in front of me with his back actually touching my chest.  A shell burst up to the right of us. He just sank beneath the waves. It killed him but missed me. I think there must have been someone up there looking after me."

He and the others abandoned that boat. Eventually some long rowing boats appeared about 100 yards off shore.

"Right," he told his comrades, "I'm going to swim." He reached the boat, was hauled on board and taken out to what he believes was the destroyer HMS Ivanhoe.

"I climbed a ladder up the side of the boat, and when I got to the top I could go no further," he said. "I was so exhausted I couldn't climb over the rails.

"Fortunately a sailor came along, saw me, and lifted me by the scruff of the neck, dumping me onto the deck. If he hadn't I would just have dropped back into the water.

"We were taken to the torpedo men's mess and given mugs of hot coffee and bully beef sandwiches. It was marvellous."

Jack, who served with the Queen's Own Royal West Kent regiment, travelled to France from Southampton as quartermaster's clerk. "It was the best job in the army," he said. "Eventually I became company quartermaster sergeant."

A strange incident occurred while his unit was camped at a farm near Oudenard. A Belgian soldier had wandered into the camp, and Jack was given the job of driving him back to HQ.

"On the way a staff car pulled up with four officers inside," he said. "They asked me to direct them to HQ. I pulled up at a cross roads and told them: ‘If you want to go to HQ you are going to have to get out and walk with me,'" he said. "With that they were gone. I reckon they were Germans."

Back in England Jack eventually found himself stationed near the Nottinghamshire village of Retford. He walked into the village with a friend who wanted to meet one of the local girls. The girl in turn introduced him to one of her friends, who was clutching a bike.

"I called her ‘the girl with the bike' for ever after," he said. "We got married on April 18 1942 and had 58 very happy years together."

But three weeks after the wedding Jack was shipped abroad once more, eventually fighting against the Japanese in Burma. It was three long years before they saw each other again.