Harry Beckhough who died last Sunday aged 101, was a colonel in the Intelligence Corps during the Second World War, a code-breaker at Bletchley Park and was also thought to have been the oldest member of the Conservative Party, which he joined when he was 15 in 1929.

During his lifetime he enjoyed secret chats with Winston Churchill, studied briefly under the philosopher Heidegger, intercepted personal messages between Hitler and Rommel, hung out with the Beatles in Carnaby Street, and even set up fashion guru Paul Smith with his first shop.

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