Tributes for Sir Patrick's 'lifetime of achievement'

WIGAN-BORN former Labour MP and defence minister Sir Patrick Duffy has died aged 105 following a short illness, a family friend has said.

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Sir Patrick, who died on January 2, is believed to have been the longest-living former MP in the UK.

Family friend Kevin Meagher, who helped write his second book, published when he was 103, said Sir Patrick was "kind of a living historical jukebox" where you can "push the buttons and say: 'What was it like to meet, you know, former prime minister Clement Attlee?'"

Sir Patrick (right) was born in Wigan in 1920 and his earliest memory was of the 1926 general strike, Mr Meagher said, when Britain's miners walked out over attempts by pit owners to increase their working hours, but reduce their wages.

He was 'pre-internet' and 'pre-computer' and used a typewriter or pen to write up From Wigan To Westminster: Hot Wars, Cold Wars And The Carrier Strike Group - which reflected on his political career and modern-day issues, the author and political commentator added.