NATWEST Bank's oldest customer and possibly the oldest person in Epping has died aged 103.

George Lemon from Theydon Garnon passed away last week in the same home he was born in in April 1906.

The sixth of seven children, Mr Lemon became the oldest Natwest customer after the Queen Mother died in 2002.

Having lived in Epping all his life, Mr Lemon attended Theydon Garnon school and Ongar Grammar school before following the family tradition of joining the Merchant Navy.

But disaster struck when he fractured his back in an accident at sea and was forced to spend 18 months in hospital in Auckland, New Zealand.

On his return to England he worked with his father at the Epping Laundry which he later ran with his son Mark, and remained Chairman until it closed this year.

The laundry opened in 1904 on the site of the Epping Mineral Water Company and the business won contracts with national companies, local hospitals and restaurants.

Mark said: “We worked together for about 40 years and always got on really well. It was the first laundry in the country to have an automatic sheet folder, and prior to that he had four girls folding up the sheets.

"He said all his life he would have loved to be a farmer but we said he wouldn't have been very good at it because he wouldn't let any of the animals go to market.”

As a lover of animals, Mr Lemon bred caged birds and had bees and dalmatian dogs at his home in Epping.

His daughter Jean Rositol said: “He had 300 budgies at one time. In the 50's someone bred a half yellow and half green budgie and my father was amongst the first people in the world to breed these.”

During the war George was exempt from fighting because of his job running the laundry, washing the clothes for the troops, but he still played his part, taking on the role of air raid warden for Epping.

Mr Lemon married Gladys Anne Storey in 1936, who died in 1998, but remained in his home up until his death last week.

Mrs Rositol said: “He had a great life and it's amazing to think what has happened in those 103 years, from the horse and carriage to the music machine he played his DVD's on.

"He was always very sociable and an avid supporter and season ticket holder of Tottenham Hotspur for 35 years. Of course we will miss him, but he had a good life.”

Mr Lemon leaves behind his son and daughter, five grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

His funeral will be held at Parndon Wood Crematorium on September 1 at 3.30pm and his ashes are to be buried at Theydon Garnon Church.