REG Taylor celebrated his 100th birthday by launching his autobiography at his local library.

Mr Taylor, of Caldicot, was assisted in putting together the book, entitled A Century of Wars and Peace: The Life Story of Reg Taylor, by Peter Strong of the Caldicot Local History Society.

Among the experiences he recalls in the book are being a prisoner of war after being captured at Tobruk in north Africa in 1942 and being made to assist in the aftermath of blanket bombing of Dresden in 1945.

He also revealed that at Tobruk he hid his wedding ring on the second toe of his left foot to prevent it being stolen by the advancing Germans – and it stayed there until the end of the war.

Mr Taylor, who now lives in Kirrlach Close, Caldicot was born in London in November 1914 and was the third of 10 children.

He launched his book at Caldicot Library with friends and family as well as Newport East MP Jessica Morden and town mayor Cllr Alan Davies.

Staff from the town's branch of Waitrose presented him with a hamper and donations for copies of the book were collected for the Alzheimer's Society and the Red Cross.

Mr Taylor had previously done some writing and nine years ago began a computer class.

He said: "I started to collect a bit of nonsense about my life and went onto Google to find a ghost writer but they were all in the USA.

"I asked the staff in this wonderful library and they said there was a man who came here every Wednesday and that was Peter Strong.

"Pete took it away and edited it and took over the printing arrangements."

Mr Strong said: "I'm a historian and I study history but people like Reg made history – we salute them."