Jim's home for his birthday bash

Jim McCombe wanted to spend his landmark birthday, which actually took place on June 11, with his family, and as part of his stay he hooked up with family and posed for a family photograph that few clans get to see - four generations of men in the same place at the same time.

Accompanying Jim for the momentous journey was his partner, Carissa, and the couple returned home to Swindon on Tuesday. They arrived in the City after travelling over from England via Dublin on Friday morning.

"The City has changed a heck of a lot. I have seen it several times in the past intervening years. It is not like my old town. I always walked from King's Street to St Columb's Park, and it took me about five minutes and I remember there was nothing past that! No houses or anything, but it is very changed and for the better I feel," he said.

Jim recalls going to school at the bottom of Carlisle Road, and leaving that school to go to Ebrington, which is where he did most of his schooling.

Explaining why he chose to return home for his birthday, Jim said: "I came back because the majority of my family, a couple of brothers and sisters still live here with all my nephews and nieces. One of my family, people may know him, is Robert Hamilton, who is in Newbuildings, Alec, my other brother lives in Kilfennan and my sister lives in the Kilfennan area as well."

Jim joined the RAF when he was 20, which meant leaving the City altogether, and he served in the RAF for 22 years.

Jim's first wife was from Torquay, and they settled near where Jim was based in Swindon.

The city life in Swindon is a far cry from Bonds Street in the Waterside, where Jim's mother came from.

"We used to live in Herbert Street at the top of the Hill, off the Strabane Old Road, and when I left school at 14 I got a job in Dixon's it was at the time, that was a little shop in the Waterside at Clooney Terrace. That was in 1944 and I lived in King's Street at the time. Then before I moved to Belfast I worked on the railway on the refreshment cars. I worked in a mill in Belfast. I moved there when I was 16. I moved to Belfast because I got a more permanent job."

Although Jim's wife has predeceased him, he has remained up-beat about life and he reveals that he met his current partner, Carissa, when she was almost 18 and he was about 65. It was "a long drawn out affair" after that, he said.

"It took us about 10 years to fall in love," he says with a laugh. I think it was me who took a long time to fall in love, but don't tell her that," he says jovially, adding: "I'm still thinking about getting married. Maybe one day I'll ask her. Maybe on Valentine's Day or something like that."

Commenting on her visit to Londonderry, Carissa said: "It is a lovely place and Jim's family are all very welcoming and are a great bunch of people."