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At 24 Harry Higton had already experienced several close brushes with death.
In 1940 he was lucky to survive when his ship, The Lancastria, was bombed in the Bay of Biscay.
Six months later he was accidentally shot on a firing range.
And in 1943 he was captured in North Africa, and spent the rest of the war in German Prisoner Of War camps.
Harry, 84, regularly gives talks to clubs and groups on his wartime experiences.
He also plays music from his vast collection of period tunes - he has over 350 LPs and 60 tapes of popular music from the 1940s to the 1970s.
He refuses to take any money for his talks, instead donating his fees to the Haywood House Hospice in Sherwood.
Now his charity work, his good humour and his gentlemanly manners have earned the pensioner a Reach Out nomination.
With Reach Out the Post is celebrating the good work people do for their community.
Harry was nominated by Donald Rowley, Mayor of Eastwood, who said: "Harry gives talks and plays his music and never takes a penny for it - all the money goes to Haywood House.
"He's always out somewhere - he must have given them a lot of money over the years."
Donald said Harry was a real gentleman: "He's one of the old school, well mannered, good natured and neighbourly. No one has a bad word to say about Harry."
Harry, of Dovecote Road, Eastwood, has a personal reason for giving to a cancer charity - he has lost the two loves of his life to the disease. His first wife Freida of 22 years died of breast cancer.
He then met Marjorie, who became his partner for 15 years before succumbing to cancer five years ago. He said: "Every penny I make from my talks goes to helping cancer sufferers. I've never kept count of how much I've raised though, I just give them the money."
He is full of praise for the staff of Haywood House: "I don't know how they stick it, because every patient they see is on their last legs."
Harry's experiences in the Second World War shaped his outlook on life and inspired him to help others.
In 1940 he was on the ship The Lancastria when she was bombed in the Bay of Biscay, near St Nazaire in Brittany. More than 5,000 men died in half-an-hour, but Harry was one of the lucky survivors.
He said: "I was sat dangling my legs over the side when a German bomber came over. The first two bombs missed but the third went right down the funnel and blew the bottom off the boat. I was very lucky to get away with it.
"It was absolute chaos. I jumped overboard and spent two hours in the water before being picked up by a Frenchman in a rowing boat.
"By the time I got back to England the only clothes I had to wear was a potato sack."
Harry said it wasn't frightening at the time: "It's only afterwards you get scared.
"When it took place time seemed to stop. It was like I was standing outside looking at it all. It's very, very curious."
On his return to England Harry spent six months in weapons training - a welcome break after his close shave on The Lancastria. As his training was coming to an end he was given notice to return to his unit. Then he was accidentally shot in the arm and needed 21 stitches.
It was fortune in disguise.
He said: "I was in hospital for a month. Whilst I was there my unit, the Sherwood Foresters, sailed for Singapore and were all captured by the Japanese. They spent the rest of the war in a Japanese POW camp, so really I was very lucky to get shot."
However Harry's turn to be captured soon came round. In March 1943 he fought in North Africa, where he was captured by the Germans.
He ended up spending two years in a POW camp near Hamburg.
Listening to him talk about his time there, it sounds like something from a classic war film.
The POWs had a radio they hid in an old accordion. "The Germans knew we got news from the BBC which was much better than theirs. A German guard used to smuggle it out for us when it needed repairing.
"When Hamburg was fire-bombed the Germans came to us for information."
He actually got on with his captors; "The German guards were mostly First World War veterans and they knew the aim of the game was to keep alive. It was the SS we didn't like."
Harry kept a diary through his POW years which is now in the Imperial War Museum.
He said: "I came close to death so many times I thought life was worth living, and that meant helping other people who aren't as well off as me. We wouldn't have survived the camps without the Red Cross, so I know how important it is to be charitable."
After the war Harry settled down to work for the Co-op as a radio and television engineer.
He said: "I'm very pleased and happy to be nominated. It's something I'd never expect."
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