An 82-YEAR-old man has been granted British citizenship more than 60 years after he came to this country from his native Poland.

Eugene Szulc came to Britain in 1946 with 4,000 other soldiers from the Polish army after fighting in the Second World War.

This afternoon Mr Szulc, who worked as a brick layer for more than half a decade and has lost count of his grandchildren and great grandchildren, took part in a ceremony granting him citizenship.

He was handed his certificate by Peter Thorogood, High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, at the event at the Wycombe Registration Office in Easton Street, High Wycombe.

Mr Thorogood said: "I was asked if I could officiate at the ceremony and I just thought it was perfect."

He added: "It's such a marvellous story."

The certificate will enable Mr Szulc, a dad-of-four, to travel to Spain to visit son Keith in his new villa, and the octogenarian will even be plying his tradesman's skills when he helps his son with repairs.

One of Mr Szulc's others sons, Graham attended the ceremony. He said: "We've always been in the thick of it individually and he's given us all individual memories and times."

Mr Szulc currently lives in Sandycroft Road, Little Chalfont, with his wife Pamela, 84.

The pair met in 1947, when Pamela was a land girl, and the two were married the next year.

Over the years Mr Szulc has helped to build houses in Beaconsfield, Buckingham and London, and even laid the foundations for the Polish Club in Forest Way, High Wycombe.