A great-grandfather was stunned when a bagpiper marked his 80th birthday.

Retired carpenter Derek Butler, of Hay Lane, Braintree, became an octogenarian last Saturday.

To mark his landmark birthday, his family organised a bagpiper to play Amazing Grace in memory of his time serving in the army’s Royal Scots Greys.

He visited his daughter Sharon Wells, who also lives in Hay Lane, and Paul Young, a pipe major for the Colchester and District Pipes and Drums, was waiting for him.

Mrs Wells, 52, said: “The piper was waiting upstairs until my dad arrived.

“Then he came in the living room playing Amazing Grace, it reduced my dad to tears - I think that song brings back a lot of memories for him because it was the tune they played in his regiment."

See this week's Braintree and Witham Times for the full story.