David Henderson, who would have been 110 in June next year, died on Saturday at Stracathro Hospital in Tayside, Scotland.

He had been in the hospital for about a week. In recent years he had lived in a nursing home near the family farm at Laurencekirk, near Aberdeen.

Porridge and prunes

His family said that even in his last years he had continued to take an active interest in the farm which his nephew now runs.

Mr Henderson had attributed his long life to porridge, prunes, and never going to bed on a full stomach.

Despite his impressive longevity, he failed to surpass the record for the UK's oldest person - which belongs to Lucy Askew from Loughton in Essex, who died aged 114, in December last year.