A SKILLED builder and soldier who helped fool the Nazis has died aged 83.

Kenneth Manley, who became a partner with his brothers until his retirement from the Atherton family firm of J Manley and Sons, fought throughout the Second World War desert campaign with Montgomery's 8th Army -- the famed Desert Rats.

As a boy, Kenneth went to Atherton Parish Church Lane Top School and was a keen Scout with 3rd Atherton Church troupe.

He learned joinery skills which later help deceive the Germans after serving an apprenticeship with the family firm and at Leigh and Salford Technical Colleges.

He volunteered at the outbreak of war and joined the Royal Engineers. He was shipped to Egypt in 1939 where he stayed until 1945.

During that period, he helped work wonders as part of the great illusionist Captain Maskylini's team, which made dummy planes and battle tanks from wood, hessian and plaster, which were moved around the desert in an attempt to undermine the enemy assessment of the Allies' positions and strengths.

Kenneth served at the siege of Tobruk and during the tremendous gun battle at El Alamein, his hearing was damaged and he eventually he became deaf.

He had been a keen motorcycle scrambles and trials rider with Bolton Motor Cycle Club, and rode in North West and Cheshire Centre events on Norton, BSA and Velocette machines and had also owned a pioneer machine -- a 1913 Douglas.

His love of two-wheel, off-road sport ran in the family and his elder brother, Les, became a member of the BSA works team.

Brought-up in Flapper Fold Lane, alongside the family workshop, Kenneth later moved to Over Hulton and, after the death of his wife, Margaret, was fiercely independent and looked after himself until he went in to Bolton Royal Infirmary seven weeks ago.

His funeral took place on Tuesday with a service and committal at Overdale Crematorium where six of his nephews acted as pall bearers and seven past apprentices paid tribute to the skills they had learned from Kenneth, his father Sid, and foreman Jimmy Topping. DESERT RAT: Kenneth Manley, in Egypt in 1940, with assistant joiners Ramadan Faragg and Abdul Ali