A RIPE OLD AGE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 68, 11 June 1927, Page 14

A RIPE OLD AGE

RETIRING AT 103 Mr. George Cant, of Barkestone-le-Vale, Notinghamshire, who began work 96 years ago at a penny a day, has just retired at the age of 103. He has been a carrier, a farmer, and, of recent years, a cottager. Last year he decided that the work of managing livestock was too hard for a man of 102. so he sold the stock and confined his activities to garden produce. Work, freedom from worry, and home-brewed ale are, according to Mr. Cant, the essentials of longevity. He was always taught by his mother to take his holidays economically, and, when Nottingham Goose Fair came round each year, she gave him half a day off and twopence to have a good time. “And,” he remarked, “it was plenty."

Mr. Cant will be tended in his retirement by his daughter, who has been his companion all her life. His oldest crony is an old schoolmate, Mr. William Walker, of Nottingham, who, at the age of 105, takes a fatherly interest in his young friend.