BRITAIN'S OLDEST MAN

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6545, 29 February 1928, Page 3

BRITAIN'S OLDEST MAN

HIS 106TH. BIRTHDAY “Yes, I am 100 years old. I am tho oldest man in lingland. ” Sitting in an armchair before the fire with a cup of toa in his hand, Mr. William Walker, of Wilford Road, Nottingham, gazed reflectively into the flames. “A lot of people don’t believe that is my age,” ho said in a pleasant voice with a rich burr that suggests the countryside, “but I can soon prove It to them.” He rummaged among some papers in

a tin box at Iris side and brought out a birth certificate. “There it is,’’ he said, “and it says I was born at East Bridgcford on January 8, 1532. My father was a blacksmith, and I was baptised the day after I was born. I don’t know why they did that, but I think they were afraid of babies dying in those days. “Well, I don’t say' but that I am proud of my age,” he replied. “I have got a life of hard work to look back bn. What hfivc kept me alive are bard work, games, whenever I could play them, and plenty of good food. “I began work when I was twelve, and I worked till I was eighty-six. I would have gone on then, but they dropped my wage a halfpenny an hour, and I was not going to have that. Talking of food, Mr. Walker confessed that next to cricket his chief passion in life was pork. “AVhat is nicer for supper than a pork pie and a pint of beer ? I think pork is the best meat you can get. . “Mind, I don’t hold with a lot of drinking. If I had been a drunkard 1 should net be hero to-day, but a pint of beer now and acain is different. ”