Rex "Harry" Reeve was born in Scottsdale on March 4, 1920, to Allan and Hilda Reeve. He lived with his parents in the Old Camp Hotel, which the family owned, at the foot of the Billycock Hill, and went to school at Kamona, near Dorset.

He left school at 14 and worked for his dad for two years farming, then got a job on the railways where he worked all over Tasmania.

When the Second World War started, Mr Reeve joined the Australian Navy in November, 1941.

READ MORE: Premier's absence noted during Prime Minister's visit to Northern Tasmania

He trained at Flinders Naval Depot in Victoria and was eventually drafted onto the HMAS Westralia. During the war, he ran convoy work in the Pacific, chiefly in the New Guinea area.

Mr Reeve returned home after the war in 1946 and went back working on the railways, where he also spent time as a guard on the trains.

However, he quit after five months when he decided there was more chance of him being killed on the job than there was in the war, due to the risk involved in changing carriages and shunting, which back then, often resulted in people being crushed.

While on a fishing and hunting trip with a few mates, Mr Reeve was introduced to one of the men's nieces, Beverly, known as Bev. She was 18 at the time, and he was 34.

Two years after meeting, they married at the Methodist Church in Sheffield.

READ MORE: Tasmania's only charity for pets of homeless shuts down

Mrs Reeve said her husband was very special and would be dearly missed by herself and their two children, five grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.

"We had a good life together and we managed to travel around a lot," she said.

The couple lived at various places around Tasmania, including Riverside, Perth, Scamander and Cosgrove Park.

Mrs Reeve said her husband had many interesting and funny stories, many of which came from the time directly following leaving the railways when he got a job taking people for their driver's licences for the government. He would take 12 people a day for driving tests for much of the '60s and '70s.

As quoted on the Facebook page Humans of Launceston, Mr Reeve said he failed one man, who was 84, a half-a-dozen of times.

READ MORE: Tasmanian businesses prepare to welcome back international tourists

"He frightened the hell out of me," he said.

"Then he kept coming back and getting me as his tester, and I kept failing him ... he was that dangerous I was really doing a service to the public by failing him, trust me."

Mr Reeve retired at 60 years of age, after suffering a heart attack at 53, which Mr Reeve said slowed him down a little, however not enough to stop him from driving, which he managed to do for almost half a century longer.

Mrs Reeve said that his last drive came at the age of 100, when one of his grandchildren offered him the wheel for one last time.

Mr Reeve's daughter, Vicki Biffin, said the family were blessed to have her father in their lives.

"He was such a loving and caring man that we were all so proud of and my family and I consider ourselves so lucky to have been able to know him for so long.

He was one in a million," she said.

"We had a great childhood with him ... he would take us fishing, rabbit hunting, and on trips to farms and lakes."

Ms Biffin said the support her mother gave Mr Reeve shouldn't go unnoticed and she believed he wouldn't have been here so long without her love and care.

Mr Reeve's son Peter Reeve remembered his father as a "brilliant old fella".

READ MORE: Venue confirmed for AFL's Hillcrest tribute match

"For me, he was always there, and he helped me out a lot," he said.

He said he would remember him as a man that would always try something new, including when he went on the flying fox at the Tahune Airwalk when he was 93.

Bass Liberal MHR Bridget Archer said, via Facebook, that she was very sad to hear of the passing of Mr Reeve.

"I had the great pleasure of first meeting Harry when I presented him with a commemorative medallion for his service in WWII at the Launceston RSL," she said.

"Deepest condolences to Harry's family and friends."

President of the Naval Association of Australia's Tasmanian sub-section, Brian Ellis, said Mr Reeve was the oldest member of the sub-section and would be remembered by members of the organisation fondly.

"He served in the Royal Australian Navy from 1941 to 1946 during the second world war, mainly on small warships called corvettes," he said.

"He lived a wonderful life, with a great family."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: