WA’s oldest surviving prisoner of war turned 104 on the day Queen Elizabeth II passed away and shared his treasured memories in a special interview with Mark Gibson on 6PR.

Arthur Leggett, one of WA’s last World War II veterans, told Gibson on The Catch-Up host what keeps him ticking, some enduring learnings from his life, recited his favourite poetry and how it feels being a living symbol of Anzac spirit.

“You’re representing all those blokes that didn’t come back, and you know damn well you’re not very far from joining them,” he told Gibson.

“Sometimes I think I wish my dad could be here, he was in the first war, and he passed away while I was a prisoner of war in the second war.

“So you can get a rough idea how I feel about wars.”

Hear Arthur recite his favourite poetry

Mr Leggett moved to Perth as a teenager in the early 1930s with his family. His father was caught in a gas attack in the First World War and struggled to recover.

Arthur was then off to war himself as a signaler in the 11th Battalion, fighting against the Italian army in Libya and in the battles of Bardia and Tobruk, before being captured by German paratroopers in the Battle of Crete in Greece, aged 22.