A 100-year-old RAF veteran from Surrey will be wearing his medal with pride this Remembrance Sunday following a 40-year wait.

Former radar mechanic Denis Luff was meant to receive an active service medal in 1986 for his efforts towards the end of the Second World War and following years.

But now the wait is finally over – with the veteran finally receiving the memento from the Ministry of Defence days after his 100th birthday, and just in time for Remembrance.

Denis was born in Dorking in 1926 but has lived for the last 95 years in the same semi-detached house in Addlestone.

He was in his early teens when the Second World War began, but he remembers the period vividly, from sharing classrooms with London evacuees to a bombing raid in nearby Brooklands that could have killed his dad.

He said: “Nobody talks much about it now, but the Germans bombed Vickers-Armstrong and killed 130-odd.

“My dad worked for VA at the time but on that particular occasion he was home upstairs, getting ready to do a nightshift the next day.

“We had very good luck that day and after that my dad worked in New Haw as a wireman. In those days everyone was for the war effort and everything mattered.”

With this in mind, Denis was keen to join the RAF and was 17 when he enlisted in Croydon.

Being quickly ruled-out as a potential pilot, he was directed towards wireless mechanics and radar. His course was truly set when 100 out of 98 recruits were moved to the army, while he and another colleague were directed to a six-month course in Leicester.

“We were the lucky two and we were getting training to be radar wireless mechanics,” said Denis.

“Apparently we were a bit more intelligent but that was really the start of my career. It wasn’t long later I was on a boat heading to India and going through the Suez Canal.

“You can imagine what that was like to a 17 or 18-year-old – it was like the adventure of a lifetime.”

Travels around India followed before he left the army and joined EMI, playing a big – but secret – role in Britain’s rocket programme and getting the equivalent of a diploma in electronic engineering.

But he never got the medal his time warranted, with some recent investigation by his niece, Diane, paying off. One was issued but never arrived.

Denis said: “If you are in a war department, in a war area, you were eligible for a medal, even if you weren’t fighting.

“All the time I was in the RAF no-one mentioned medals.

“Never during the whole of my years with the RAF did anyone say to me you’ve got to apply, so we never did.

“I guess the whole thing reminded me a little of the war effort. I loved the war effort, as there was no moaning or groaning, we all just pulled together and got on with it.

“But it’s nice to finally get one.”