A veteran RAF officer who witnessed the aftermath of a deadly bombing at Detling Airfield has turned 100.

David King was a long time leading member of the Maidstone Orchestral Society and ran a popular outfitters in the County Town for more than two decades.

A party with more than 100 guests had been planned for the great-grandfather, but instead, he enjoyed a huge chocolate cake and waved at his family, who were standing on the other side of the door of his Maidstone care home, while making sure they adhered to social distancing rules.

Speaking about being a century old, David said: "It has been a long time coming. It's extraordinary. I just take it one day at a time."

Born in Maidstone in 1920, he studied at a Hertfordshire boarding school, where he first picked up a violin and developed his love of music.

After school he was an apprentice at a Tonbridge department store before spending two months as a junior salesman at an exclusive London shop, where he sold a tie to the wife of Anthony Eden, the then foreign secretary.

However, he was called back to the family business, King's in Gabriel's Hill, when his brother Bobby suffered a squash injury, and became manager.

At the start of the Second World War and aged 19, he joined the RAF as an aircraft man and was stationed at Detling Airfield.

Working in the operations room, his team were not on watch when the site was bombed on August 13, 1940.

Dozens were killed and it was the biggest single attack on an RAF station during the Battle of Britain.

Speaking to the Kent Messenger 10 years ago about his memory of the day, David said: "I was due in the ops room at 22.00 hours. I had been to Maidstone in the morning and had noticed six Bleinheims lined up along the perimeter fence.

"When I was coming back I noticed that where they had been there was a pile of engines and metal. Nearly every building had been destroyed or damaged."

David was mentioned in dispatches for his actions afterwards, although he insists he did "nothing special", when he spoke to the Kent Messenger last week.

During the war he rose up through the ranks, eventually appointed acting flying lieutenant in India and Burma, before returning to run King's with Bobby.

In 1949 he married Mickie Rose and became step-father to Carolyn and Nigel. Their daughter Fiona followed three years later.

"He would have lost friends during the bombing be never spoke about his military experience until he was in his 60s or 70s and then he wrote it all down in a book called 'My War'," said Nigel, who is now 70.

"He was a wonderfully conscientious father. He would have a glass of wine now and then but he never smoked.

"He was a great example of being morally principled and he still is," Nigel added.

As well as being a good salesman, he had an entrepreneurial streak, designing a shirt which had a long dip at the back and could be used while sailing, another one of his passions.

"It appeared in sailing magazines all around the world and you could only buy it at King's in Maidstone," Nigel said.

The veteran moved in to The Grove, a residential home in Bower Mount Road two years ago, only 100 yards from where he grew up, in Tonbridge Road.

Nigel says whenever he visits he finds his father playing Patience on his computer.

Speaking to the Kent Messenger, David admits he doesn't go on his computer so much any more, but still enjoys listening to Beethoven.

Although the family are sad they could not properly celebrate David's birthday as they wished, they are planning a grand party when he turns 101.

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