Britain's oldest man has joined his local scout troop - 100 years after being told by his mother that she couldn't afford to buy him the uniform.

Henry Allingham is famous as the only surviving RAF veteran of the First World War and starred in last week's 90th anniversary celebration of the Armistice, where the tried gamely to stand up and lay his own wreath at the Cenotaph.

On Saturday, he was under a slightly smaller spotlight as he took up an invitation from his local scout troop to join its 30th birthday party and ended up being invested as a scout after promising to "do my best to do my duty to God and to the Queen, to help other people and to keep the Scout law".

It was only a century late. Mr Allingham attended scouts with his cousin back in 1908, the year after Lord Baden Powell, the founder of scouting, invited 22 boys to go camping on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour. He remembers going camping too. "I really enjoyed it and wanted to join but I was unable to do so because my mum could not afford the uniform," he said.

Simon Carter, from the Scout Association, said that Mr Allingham spoke eagerly with the 120 children at the party. "He was just completely and utterly captivated by the whole thing," he said. "He was sparkling and bright and motivated."

Among them was Chris Denham, a 12-year-old member of the 6th Brighton troop, who presented Mr Allingham with a special certificate from the Chief Scout. "It was great to meet Henry. It's cool that he is exactly 100 years older than I am."

Mr Carter said that Mr Allingham was "probably the oldest living scout in the world". As Europe's oldest man, he is definitely the oldest scout in Europe.

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