Silver surfer George is the golden boy of the net

Friday 27th April 2007, 12:00AM BST.

WHEN George Smith was at school PCs gave you a clip around the ear and IT was a game for the playground.

However, in a clear demonstration that you are never too old to learn, the 87-year-old Second World War RAF veteran is now a computer whizz-kid. And having won an award for his website, he is now teaching his peers how to get online. One of his newest pupils is 94 and wants to be able to use the internet to telephone her son on the other side of the world. ‘It all started in 1981,’ explained Mr Smith, ‘when Clive Sinclair brought out the ZX81. It cost £90 and we had to write our own programmes in Basic. In 1998, I started writing web pages. A friend of mine showed me how to do it and I downloaded all the instructions I needed from the internet.’

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