Puffing Pensioner Keeps Wartime Fags

If there is one thing living through wartime rationing taught many pensioners,it was to hoard everything.

But when it comes to holding on to things,few are able to match 90-year-old Ben Alder.

The pensioner from England still has two "gasper" cigarettes sent to him more than 61 years ago.

After six decades,he has discovered the cigarettes,a Craven A and a Players Weight,still tucked inside the envelope in which they were sent to him by his sister Flo,soon after being stationed with the Territorial Army in Dorset in 1939.

He said "She sent me a lovely letter and had slipped a couple of fags inside for me to enjoy.

"They were a bit squashed so I decided to hang on to them for a rainy day."

"I used to be a heavy smoker but gave up 25 years ago.

"These cigarettes don't look to be in a bad state but I don't think I would ever light them up.

"They say smoking kills,and in this case they could well be right."