He survived two world wars and two global pandemics but age finally caught up with him and now the world’s oldest man, John Tinniswood, has died at the age of 112, just months after he made it into the Guinness World Record books.

Tinniswood, who was born the same year the Titanic sank in 1912, died on Monday at a care home in Southport, northwest England, surrounded by “music and love,” his family told Guinness World Records in a statement.

“John had many fine qualities. He was intelligent, decisive, brave, calm in any crisis, talented at maths and a great conversationalist,” his family said.

Those qualities would go on to serve him throughout his life, from his services in the Royal Army during World War II to civilian life in the post war years as an accountant in the oil industry before retiring aged 60.

Tinniswood was born in August 1912 in Liverpool and went on to meet his wife Blodwen at a dance before marrying her in 1942, at the height of war when he served in the Royal Army Pay Corps, which was responsible for finances and food supplies.

The widower, who lost his wife in 1986, would receive a birthday card each year from the late Queen Elizabeth, from the ages of 100 to 110.

He stopped receiving those cards when the late Queen, who was 14 years younger than Tinniswood, died in 2022.

Tindall could not explain his longevity and followed no special diet, other than treating himself to his favourite food, battered fish and chips, every Friday.

After receiving the Guinness World Records title of world’s oldest man in April this year, Tinniswood admitted there was no huge secret to his long life span, insisting it was “just luck”.

“You either live long or you live short, and you can’t do much about it,” he said.

He is survived by a daughter, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

-with Reuters.