Thousands are celebrating the 75th anniversary of VJ Day - Victory in Japan - today and none more so than Leslie Stelfox.

The former ‘Desert Rat’ is now living on Sheppey and at 107 is believed to be the oldest surviving Second World War veteran.

After serving in Palestine with the Royal Cheshire Regiment he joined the Palestine Police Force and later the 8th Army in North Africa under Field Marshal Montgomery.

During the bloody battle of Monte Cassino in Italy (January to May 1944) he was blown up and suffered injuries to his face. He was shipped home for three months to recover and returned to the front line on D-Day.

Mr Stelfox is living in Blackburn Lodge, Sheerness, after moving from his home in Cherry Tree Close, Milton Regis, Sittingbourne, which he had shared with his late wife Caroline.

In May he joined residents to celebrate VE Day (Victory in Europe) and the day after celebrated his 107th birthday. Home spokesman Paula Fagg said: “Les fought at El Alamein and then onwards into Italy. Unfortunately, he never made the Far East as he was blown up at Monte Cassino.”

Last August he had 11 of his treasured medals stolen from his home including some owned by his late father.

The widower said at the time: “The medals are no good to anybody else but they proved I’d done my bit for the country. I’d like to get them back as they’re earmarked for my grandchildren.”

Mr Stelfox was born in Dover Street, Sittingbourne, in 1913 when George V was on the throne and Herbert Asquith was Prime Minister. He has lived through four monarchs, numerous prime ministers and two World Wars. After growing up in Lower Halstow he moved to Cheshire in 1928 with his family and joined the Army when he was 18.

He admitted: “I wanted to join the Navy but there wasn’t a recruitment office open, so I joined the Army. I just wanted to join up to play my part.”

Tim Bell, 75, from Scrapsgate Road, Minster will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of VJ Day today by driving around in the ‘mobility tank’ he created for the VE Day celebrations in May.

He said: “I will be getting my converted mobility scooter complete with gun turret back on the streets.”

The retired electrician has converted his mobility scooter into a fighting machine complete with its own Union Flag and sound system to blast out tunes from the 1940s to delighted neighbours.

He quipped: "Boys never grow up. We just get bigger toys. This seemed an ideal way to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day in style."

A tribute to prisoner of war artist Leo Rawlings is being shown at the Avenue Theatre, Central Avenue, Sittingbourne today between 11am to 3pm. Mr Rawlings spent three years on the notorious Railway of Death in Japan. More than 100 copies of his drawings including letters from Queen Elizabeth and Earl Mountbatten will be on show.

A short film giving his account of an emotional return to Japan in 1980 made by Swale councillor Ken Rowles will also be shown. Cllr Rowles' film company RWH Productions based in London Road, Teynham, bought the screen rights to Rawlings' book And The Dawn Came Up Like Thunder in 1988. It had a forward written by Lord Mountbatten.

Cllr Rowles and actor Simon Ward spent the following year talking to broadcasters and filmed a 12-minute interview with Rawlings about his experience as a POW and his life as an artist. Cllr Rowles said: "The film was never finished because of Leo's death but I vowed to always do my best to tell his story."

Rawlings was born in Birmingham on May 16, 1918, and studied art and craft from the age of 11. Shortly after the Munich crisis of 1939 he joined the Blackpool Territorial Army and trained as a gunner/signaller with the 137th Field Regiment RA.

In September 1941 his unit was posted to Singapore. Within days of landing the Japanese declared war and Rawlings' unit was sent to the front line in Northern Malaya where they were captured and forced to work on the Railway of Death.

Cllrs Rowles said: "Leo survived for three and half years, strengthened by his vow to record everything he saw to document the horrifying life led by prisoners of war at the hands of the Japanese."

Admission to the exhibition is free but donations to Swale Media Arts Centre will be appreciated. Face masks must be worn.

The new Lord-Lieutenant of Kent Lady Annabel ‘Bella’ Colgrain will be attending a socially distanced wreath-laying ceremony in Canterbury followed by a service in Canterbury Cathedral with the Lord Mayor, High Sheriff and chairman of Kent County Council. Deputy Lieutenants will be laying wreaths at similar events across the county.

National celebrations started with lone pipers playing at 6am followed by a remembrance service from the National Memorial Arboretum shown on BBC One. There was a two-minutes silence at 11am.

11.30am- 5.30pm: Red Arrows fly-past over Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff and London.

8.30pm: VJ Day 75: The Nation’s Tribute on BBC One filmed on Horse Guards Parade

Read more: All the latest news from Sheppey here

Read more: All the latest news from Sittingbourne here