HOLOCAUST survivor, intelligence officer for General MacCarthy, world renowned garden centre designer.

All terms to describe one man – Ernest Wertheim whose expertise has played a pivotal role in developing Bents over the past 20 years.

Despite now being 95, Ernest flew from the United States to visit the Glazebury garden centre after its £10million expansion.

With a career as a landscape architect which spans eight decades, he is also one of the world’s first garden centre designers.

And having been involved with the development of Bents since the early 1990s, he is a close friend of the family business.

Matthew Bent, managing director at Bents, said: "Ernest has been a part of the Bents family for many years during which time he has helped us plan and deliver every stage of our development, from the first shop extension in 1996 to our latest expansion plans.

"We are enormously grateful to him for all the help and guidance he has, and continues to give, but most of all we cherish him as a friend.

"His life has been an incredible journey, but his love of the beauty of the natural world has been the one consistent factor, something which he helps bring to thousands of people through the development of the garden centre industry."

Born in Germany, Ernest developed a love of plants and nature from the age of five.

As a Jewish teenager growing up in Nazi Germany, he survived the holocaust, escaping to America in 1938. During the Second World War he served in the Pacific Theatre and was an intelligence officer for General MacCarthy, experiencing the realities of war.

But during all his life experiences his love of plants endured, seeing and taking note of horticulture all around him.

He has since risen to the top of his profession and remains one of the worldwide leaders in the garden centre industry.