World's oldest bell ringer aged 100 says it cures his 'aches and pains'

One-hundred-year-old Dennis Brock can still climb up the steep, winding steps of St Mary’s Church to ring its bells every Sunday - as he has done for 89 years – and he's keen to carry on the tradition this Christmas.

Mr Brock is believed to be the world’s oldest bell ringer - and after turning 100 in November – he intends to assist Father Andrew at St Mary’s in Sunbury-on-Thames during the festive season, with a good ole ding dong on the church bells.

Mr Brock is living proof that the secret to a long life is keeping active and he says he will not be giving it up because it cures his "aches and pains".

”I’m really blessed with fairly good health", he told the BBC. "I get aches and pains of course but I just think ‘Oh, I’ll go round, we’ll be ringing tonight. I’ll get rid of it’".

Nazis thought his bell music was a secret code

Mr Brock has been ringing the bells since he was 11 years old. His father was 58 when he died and he had no mother to bring him up. His sister died when she was just nine but his love for bell ringing saw him through family loss and more hard times when war broke out.

The man only took a break from bell ringing because of World War Two, when he took part in the evacuation of Dunkirk and was captured by Nazis.

Mr Brock survived being a Prisoner of War (POW) even though his interest in bell ringing made the Nazis so suspicious, they singled him out as a spy.

Dreaming of St Mary’s bells may have kept him going as a prisoner but bell music he had scribbled out on toilet paper had the Germans convinced it was a secret code.

The former lance bombardier was captured by Nazis in North Africa in 1942, where he became a POW, before being moved to Italy and finally Dresden. After arriving in Dresden, he survived the Allied bombing of the city.

Man who saved his legs made hobby still possible

Mr Brock says he will be forever grateful to the Italian army lieutenant who in 1943 managed to save his legs, after he became ill from malnutrition in a POW camp.

He is keen to track down the soldier (going by the name of Antonino Alessi) to thank him for his efforts, which made it possible for Mr Brock to continue climbing the steps of St Mary’s bell tower.

The former civil servant retired in 1978 but has no plans to retire from his life-long hobby. During his life, he has rung more than 1,100 sets of bells in different churches but always returns to the eight bronze bells at St Mary’s.

Mr Brock continues to clean the bells and has trained up hundreds of people who wanted to learn how to bell ring.

His enthusiasm even managed to momentarily distract Prime Minister Theresa May from talking about her Brexit deal in Parliament, as Spelthorne MP Kwazi Kwarteng spoke of Mr Brock’s long service.

Theresa May told MPs: “I am very pleased first to wish Dennis Brock a very happy 100th birthday, and secondly to pay tribute to him for his 89 years of bell-ringing,” she said.

“That is a considerable and significant record, and I think the support he has given, the work he has done and his commitment to St Mary’s in Sunbury are truly inspiring.”

And as his remarkable journey though life continues, Mr Brock sums it up best. When he awakes to the start of a new day he likes to tell himself: “Well, I’ve got through that lot. Time for another day”.