THE secret to a long life is rocket science, according to a 105-year-old.

Braham Grant, who lives in Rosetrees Care Home, in Friern Barnet, has now received two telegrams from the Queen.

He was born in 1911 in the East End and his family’s cap business began supplying to the British Army in the Second World War.

But they were ordered to change their surname from the German sounding Gottheimer to Grant because it would “not be good for morale”.

He celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at the Dunstan Road Synagogue, in Golders Green, when he was just a teenager.

The great-grandfather of six enjoyed a long career as an aeronautical engineer and took part in a number of European space projects.

He worked for Rolls Royce, De Havilland Propellers and Lucas Aerospace, where he created patended designs.

He worked on the Blue Streak rocket – originally planned as a nuclear deterrent in 1958 and intended to replace the V bombers – but was finally used as the first stage of a carrier rocket named Europa.

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In 1943, he married his wife, Edith Wiener, and the couple enjoyed 71 years of married life with their children, Michelle and Michael.

He moved to Rosetrees in 2013 to be closer to Edith, who lived next door in Lady Sarah Cohen House, but died in January 2014.

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His daughter, Michelle, who lives in Bushey, said: “It was a real pleasure to celebrate Dad’s 105th birthday together at the home and Braham was delighted to receive another telegram from the Queen.

“He is just amazing, he worked until his 80’s and he loved his job, he drove until he was 98 years old and would go on the underground to lectures at the Institute of Engineering and Technology, where he is still a member.”