Wild side of the older generation: Award-winning painter reveals colourful lives of borough's elderly residents

Morgan Penn’s ‘It’s a Snail’s Pace in Twickenham’ shows a group of elderly gentlemen gambling on a Russian roulette-style snail race taking place in an allotment shed.

From last year: Teddington artist Morgan Penn assembles lively ladies through this paper for his latest masterpiece

Mr Penn put out a call for people to take part in his painting after reading about an elderly woman living the next road over who was revealed to have been a post-World War II spy after a machine gun was found in her attic.

He said: “I liked the idea that there’s this older generation with very colourful lives, this hidden world where they’re going wild.

“There are these people from the older generation who like to portray themselves as sedate and well-to-do but I don’t believe them.”

One of the subjects, 97-year-old Bill Matthews, fought the Germans at Dunkirk.

The artist included an anti-tank gun in the painting as a reference to the gun Peter was ordered to throw into a canal after it failed to pierce a wooden barge.

Len Marshall, 93, was a rear gunner on a Lancaster bomber, flying 32 missions during World War II, and was the only survivor of a plane crash.

Peter England, 83, had previously worked as a Royal chauffeur, driving the Queen, Diana and Prince Charles – and even drove Dick Van Dyke to the set of Mary Poppins.

Mr Penn said it was “pure luck” that the subjects he chose had such varied and interesting back stories.

He said: “I had no idea what they did at first. I was just thankful that people wanted to be involved.”

Last year the Richmond & Twickenham Times reported Mr Penn was "on the hunt" for elderly men to post for this piece.

The artist, whose work has drawn comparisons to that of Norman Rockwell, is planning to display more of the borough’s residents in his future works and is currently on the lookout for bin men to feature in his next painting.