A 75-year-old former postmaster spoke of his shock yesterday when he was told his skull had grown back half a century after a terrible car crash.

Gordon Moore had a metal plate above his eyes and on the top of his skull, and when they removed it to treat an infection, surgeons were shocked to find the bone had completely regenerated underneath.

The new growth even followed a dent in his titanium plate caused by a subsequent car crash three years after his original operation.

Mr Moore, of Ridsdale, Northumberland, who has hit the headlines previously for his intrepid recent holidays to Iraq and Afghanistan, flipped his car while driving near Berwick in 1955, and underwent a life-saving operation.

A titanium plate was fitted, covering his forehead and above, and three years later when he crashed into a lamppost, it was dented when he banged his head on his rear-view mirror.

While travelling in Afghanistan two years ago, a small section of wire poked out of his forehead and needed to be removed.

Later, an infection was found, and medics were concerned the plate may need to be removed and replaced.

Wearing the plate never bothered Mr Moore, whose only legacy of the terrible crash was losing his sense of smell.

“I won’t set the alarms off at the airport anymore,” he said.