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WATCH: WW2 Veteran celebrates 103 birthday live on GB News
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Apr 22, 2025
A remarkable 103-year-old World War II veteran and the last surviving member of the elite Raiding Support Regiment has celebrated his birthday live on GB News.John Morris, who served in multiple major campaigns during WWII, was honoured with a special visit arranged by friends and supporters.Morris joined the army at just 17 years old, serving first in the Battle of Britain before being deployed to North Africa.The veteran was accompanied by his friend Matthew Hellyer, who described Morris as "an absolute legend" and "World War Two hero".Speaking from the studio, Morris quipped "I feel 150 at the moment" when asked about reaching his remarkable age.WATCH THE CLIP ABOVE FOR MORE
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John, I believe, is the oldest of the Chelsea pensioners
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and his father fought at both the Somme and Ypres. Well, the London Hells Angels and MCs have shown their respect
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by taking John on their bikes to the GB News studios early on
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as a special birthday gift to him. There we are. There is the man. There is the legend
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And I'm proud to say he joins me now in the studio at GB News
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with his friend and my friend, and that is the SS hero, Matthew Hellier
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to celebrate an extraordinary life. Gentlemen, first of all, may I shake the hand of a legend
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What an absolute pleasure it is to have you in the studio, John Morris. Matthew Hellier also, mate. Thanks for setting this up
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Let's start with you, Matthew. How do you introduce a legend like this? Well, you know the fellas. Over to you
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Easy. This man is an absolute legend. World War II hero, the only man surviving from his regiment
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the Raiding Sport Regiment, which was a special forces regiment in World War II
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John joined the army at 17 years old, fought in the Battle of Britain before being shipped over to North Africa
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fought all the way through North Africa before volunteering for special forces
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and was dropped after fighting at Casino, then dropped into Montenegro, the Balkans
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and trained Tito's forces and was demobbed in 1945. This man's got a massive war record and much respect to John
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One of my best friends. John, there you go. That's your intro. You've been through all of that
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You've literally been through endless wars and you've made it. You've made it to 103 years young
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John Morris, how does that feel? Well, I feel 150 at the moment
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I've had a very tiring day. Yeah. No, I've had a wonderful day thanks to Matt and Pilgrim Bandits
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because they've been fantastic. They hijacked me and got me here with the help of the Sun newspaper. Yeah
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And Matt has been a complete great friend of mine ever since Him and Jim Kearney And the Sun newspaper also helped pay me to come here
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Fantastic. Travelling business class. And the Australian Army gave me a corporal to accompany me
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to make sure I didn't go astray. I thought I was going to Hawaii, but they hijacked me
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And talk us about, this is your SAS, Barry Wright. This is John's Raiding Support Regiment
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one of the famous wartime special forces. That is the Raiding Support Regiment
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Wow. I'm the last remaining member of this group. And tell us, if you can, John, about some of those
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I mean, we hear so often, I don't like to talk about the war, but, John, people really love to hear about it
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because we have to try and keep the memories of the legends of our finest generation alive
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tell us about some of the scrapes you got into, what you remember from your time. What do you want, I don't know
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Some of the scrapes you got into, some of the heroic, valiant efforts you were involved in
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Sorry? Tell us about some of your scraps in the war. Have I? Tell us about some of your scraps in the war
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How did I start the war? No. What about the time when you were anti-aircraft gun
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and you shot the chimney, John? That's a good story. Interesting, wasn't it? Yeah. When we first started the war, we were very low on armour
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In fact, they gave us, all we had was a pickaxe handle
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Yeah. No rifles were available because Dunkirk had just happened. And I joined the 89th Regiment
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Unfortunately, they went overseas, so I had to transfer to the Essex Heavy Interoff Regiment
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And on the Battle of Britain from the beginning, which was in July to October 1940
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and I was on the mobile guns defending London and splitting up the aircraft going over
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I was stationed for a while at Sittingbourne on the old three-inch guns
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They were very antiquated pre-war guns. And I was a gun layer
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We sometimes spent 12 to 14 hours on the guns non because there hundreds of German aircraft coming over Our job was actually to split up the aircraft
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so the actual fighters would get at them. So it was right from July to October
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Sometimes we spent 12 to 14 hours sleeping on the guns. And I was only 17 years old
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Amazing. John then parachuted in about Montenegro and the Balkans. John, when you were training Tito's forces, that's an amazing story
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That's right. When we went to... I went on the... I went to Western Supermere where the bombing was taken
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placed up in the Clyde because of the bombing in the Clyde. and after that we went on Operation Torch
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There was actually 107,000 troops going on that, 200,000 ships. That was on November the 8th, 1942, with the American First Army
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When we arrived at Algiers, the French started firing at us. They were siding with the Germans
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So we actually, the British sunk two battleships and they sunk two of ours, I think, the French
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And there was 107,000 British and American troops. There was 200 actually boats took part in the operation
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There was actually three battleships, five aircraft carriers, seven cruisers, and 38 destroyers took part in the raid on North Africa in Algiers
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On the way to they sent us down because we didn have any guns our boat carrying the guns was torpedoed So they sent us down to Bone waiting for our reinforcements to come on
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And obviously we were very bored stiff at the time. They were short
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I was a brain gun, and so he put me on top of this plattoff group, and I had to fire with any low-flying aircraft
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trying to bomb the port of Bone. So after a few months there, I got bored stiff
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and I got hepatitis and sent to a hospital. And when I came out of the hospital
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the Rating Support Regiment came around asking for volunteers and I volunteered
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Meantime, the Rating Support Regiment, which you can see is a badge for the Rating Support Regiment
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I'm the last remaining member of that one at the moment. The rest are all gone
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And you're 103 today. I think we've got some pictures of you arriving, a spectacular arrival today
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You've got a motorbike. It's fantastic. So let's put those pictures up on screen if we can
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And Matthew, talk us about... Oops, there we go, the balloons have got a minor room. Look at this
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So there you are, you've got a tin hat on. You're going along, that's you there, Matt
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Talk us through where you've come from and about this journey. We picked John up from the Royal Hospital Chelsea
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He had an entourage of motorbikes from the Hells Angels and the motorbike clubs of London
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They all wanted to be part of this and show how patriotic they are, show John the respect, and they took us through the streets of London
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and delivered us to the wonderful Westminster Arms opposite the studios here
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John's had a fantastic time. You know, he's had a brilliant present, a brilliant day so far
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and it's just beginning, John. You've still got a couple more drinks and a few more meals and parties to go yet, I think
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And I'm hoping, actually, John, you'll be around at six o'clock. I knock off
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I'd love to buy you a pint over the way. Can I please buy you a drink? Pardon? Can I please buy you a drink after the show
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I'd just drink some tonic water. That's fine, mate. Whatever you're drinking, I'm buying
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On a serious point, fantastic images. We've got..
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