FOR those living in the UK, reaching 100 years old is often accompanied with a sense of accomplishment, along with a card from the Queen.

But other countries do things differently, as one Whitchurch resident will soon find out.

Oscar Anderson, 99, from Beech Avenue has been living in the UK since 1947, but originally hails from across the North Sea, in Norway.

On Saturday, August 14 Oscar will celebrate his 100th birthday and three days later he will return to his homeland to see how Norway celebrates its centenarians.

Oscar will meet the members of the Norwegian royal family, as well as the prime minister, and will feature in a film.

As the Second World War broke out in 1939, Norway was initially uninvolved, being a neutral country, until it was invaded in April 1940.

Oscar at the time was a member of the merchant navy, working on oil tankers going between Norway and the USA.

"Texaco ran the ship and it was based in America," said Oscar.

"In 1940 we were released to the US on the condition that we didn't trade with the UK. We would switch off all our lights and speed past Britain, and we had a German plane following us overhead."

This neutrality would soon be forced to change, with Germany beginning its invasion of Belgium and France a few weeks later.

"A British Cruiser held us in the Atlantic, and took us back to the UK for two weeks," he added.

"We then tried to go to Belgium, but German invaded so we couldn't go in. So we tried to go to France, but the Germans attacked again. That was no good to us.

"They then got us to go to Dublin in Ireland and then we went back to Texas. After that we went between South America, to Brazil. Then the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour."

After this Oscar says the 'procedure changed' and his ship became involved in the war.

"We went from being neutral to being involved in the war, we painted the ship from white to grey," he added.

During this time Oscar's ship was also subject to a German torpedo attack.

Oscar was 12 days out of Liverpool as part of a 45-ship convoy for New York, when a German submarine torpedoed his ship.

On that day he had the respect of his shipmates to order the lifeboats and the captain off the boat – at just 22.

And of that 45-ship convoy, 19 were sunk.

In 1945, Oscar married his first wife, a British woman, and decided he wanted to stay in the UK.

Early on he faced some difficulties in staying in the UK, but as he worked on a British ship from 1947 to 1952 he was able to stay.

"I finished at sea and became a painter. I made a company in Liverpool from nothing that employed 20 people," he explained. "We had seven cars, including a Rolls Royce that was mine."

It was during this time that Oscar met his second and current wife June, in 1977.

"We've been together for 44 years, married for 38," he added.

Oscar says he has been to Norway a few times since the end of the war, and has met the government and royal families three times, including the current king or Norway when he was just five years old.

On these previous visits he was awarded the Norwegian War Medal and the King Haakon VII Freedom Medal.

His latest visit will be a three-day affair, after initially cancelling a one-day trip.

In recent years Oscar has suffered from poor health, but despite this he remains as determined as ever.

"I'm deaf in one ear and my vision in very poor and I'm not so good on my feet," he added.

"But I've been looking forward to being 100.

"I insist on doing things, it's the way I am, I can't help it.

"It's 85 years since I first went to sea, at 15, and I don't miss anything."