Jim dies on his 103rd birthday... at exact time he was born
HIS working life revolved around precise calculations, so it’s fitting that a computer pioneer died at the exact time and date that he was born – 103 years ago.
Jimmy Newell was born in Leeds to the sound of bells ringing at midday on October 11, 1913.
And in a remarkable coincidence, he died with his son Graham holding his hand in hospital at the precise moment the clock struck noon again on October 11, 2016.
Graham, 65, said: ‘He died holding my hand at exactly midday on his birthday while I was on the phone to my son. We checked the time – and it was exactly noon. My belief is that it was deliberate as he would never short-change anyone.’ He said his father, an active man who lived on his own, had suffered a fall 16 days before his death. He went into Torbay Hospital for a hip operation but never returned home.
He added: ‘Everyone knew him for his determination. He did a lot of sport and was amazingly fit for his age. Had it not been for his fall we were going to take him to Spain for his 103rd birthday.’
Mr Newell, who lived in Dittisham, Devon, was a computer pioneer in the Second World War and was not allowed to enlist with the armed services because his work was ‘of national importance’.
After the war he worked many years for Burroughs, a US company that played a major role in the computerisation of the banking industry.
He moved to Devon in 1989 with his wife Kay, who died in 2000, and built a house next door to their daughter Pat. The odds of dying on the same day and time you were born are approximately 200 million to one.