Returning to his regiment in time for the attack at El Alamein, he saw a truck driven by his close friend Franky Batt blown up on a mine. The destroyed historical centre of Dresden, after the allied forces bombing of 13/14 February 1945. He told me: “It was simple, you’ve got the Mediterranean to the north, the sun in the south and, at night, the Southern Cross overhead. Travelling alone in a beat-up old Bedford truck he had an uncanny knack for knowing where he was. After his time with Popski he was transferred to the Long Range Desert Group, driving wounded soldiers hundreds of miles. In the second world war, Vic was sent to the Western Desert. The next day he was at the regiment’s headquarters in Winchester, a rifleman. On his 18th birthday, broke and wondering what to do, Vic was approached by a Rifle Brigade recruiting sergeant. Vic ran errands for Soho gangs, kept watch for the “working girls”, warning them when the police were about to raid and also got into violent fights with Mosley’s blackshirts, thriving on danger and adrenaline.

He loved speed and was a fast, skilful driver right up until his 99th birthday. He joined a boxing club, formed a jazz band and got himself recruited as a grease monkey at Brooklands race track. He left school at 14 and spent the next four years kicking round Soho. Vic and his brother and sister were brought up by their mother in a two-room slum in King’s Cross. Together, we co-wrote his three-volume memoir: Rifleman: A Front-Line Life, King’s Cross Kid and Soldier, Spy plus an eBook, Dresden: A Survivor’s Story. Though they did unleash some bite-size anarchy because, well, dogs.That meeting led to a friendship that lasted for the rest of Vic’s life, he died last Monday aged 101, three days short of his 102nd birthday. King and queen consort crowned: King Charles III's coronation The dogs proved they were not just floppy-eared playthings or bed warmers for noble lords and ladies. They were also mostly unfazed by the swathes of red, white and blue bunting, street performers, food stalls, a steel drum band, kids loosely gripping Union Jack flags and few tipsy celebrants of the two-legged variety. But it was dogs like Timmy, Buddy and dozens of the other Cavalier King Charles spaniels who attempted to parade on London's King’s Road as part of a coronation street party who stole the show. The human with whom they share a name may have been the headliner down the road at Westminster Abbey, where King Charles III was crowned Saturday at a lavish ceremony alongside Queen Consort Camilla. LONDON − It was a celebration almost fit for a king.

Watch Video: King Charles III formally crowned during an ancient ceremony

King's Cross Kid by Rick Stroud