Born on the same day 110 years ago, meet Bob and Alf – the oldest men in Britain
BOB’S STORY
ENGLAND’S oldest man, Robert Weighton, turns 110 this Thursday – and will exchange cards with his exact contemporary in Scotland, Alfred Smith.
The pair learnt only three years ago that they were born on the same day in 1908, when Edward VII was king.
Mr Weighton was born in Hull, one of seven children of a vet, and 110 years on is still very much his own man.
He lives in his own independent flat in a care centre in Alton, Hampshire, walks to Waitrose a couple of times a week, budgets £5 a day for food, and takes a keen interest in current affairs. That is partly because he has seen just how bad the news can be.
His first memory is of being ill with mumps in 1913 – and a year later seeing fires started by a Zeppelin bombing raid in the First World War.
In an age when education after 14 often had to be paid for by parents, his father could afford to keep him at school until 16, then complete a marine engineering apprenticeship.
But when he qualified the Great Depression was taking hold, so he left for the Far East. After two years in Japan learning the language, he moved to a job teaching English in a Taiwanese missionary school.
He found a wife too, Agnes, marrying her in Hong Kong in 1937. Their first son David was born the following year.
When the Second World War started they took young David first to Canada, then America – and were there when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
‘Americans had regarded the war in Europe as something they didn’t want to get mixed up in,’ he said. ‘Pearl Harbor changed that absolutely.’
His skills as a Japanese speaker won him a job in the US with the British Political Warfare Mission, producing propaganda and deciphering enemy messages. He returned to England in 1946 – by which time two more children, Peter and Dorothy, had arrived.
‘I went back to engineering, then lectured at City University in London for 25 years,’ he said. ‘It was a technological college, none of the high-brow subjects they have now.’
He and Agnes retired to Alton. She died in 1995 aged 86, and son Peter died in 2014. Mr Weighton now lives in a care complex of 46 privately owned flats, with wardens on hand to help when needed.
A birthday party is planned, but he denied that living to 110 is an achievement, saying: ‘All I’ve got to do is sit in a chair.’
He has also tired of the congratulatory messages from the Queen, saying she ‘looked a bit miserable’ in the pictures.
He says the current global situation is ‘a total muddle – you’ve got Trump, Putin, and political stalemate in Britain’. On Brexit he is a remainer, but adds: ‘I’ve not lost my pride in being a Yorkshireman or British.’
Sadly for those seeking advice on longevity, he had nothing to offer, saying: ‘I have absolutely no idea why I’ve lived so long. I just haven’t died yet, that’s all.’
ALF’S STORY
LIKE many a good Scotsman, Alfred Smith is certain about the cause of his long life – porridge.
Talking of his great longevity, he said: ‘Porridge is helpful, and having a job you enjoy’, going on to admit that he treats himself by adding both sugar and milk to his breakfast.
He adds: ‘I do ask myself – why me? Why have I lived so long when others haven’t?’
Mr Smith was born the fifth of six sons to farmers John and Jessie Smith in the village of Invergowrie, near Dundee. After education at the local primary school he moved on to the selective Harris Academy in Dundee – now a comprehensive – which he left at 14.
After school, the inter-war years were hard – and at the age of 19, in 1927, he and four of his brothers emigrated to Canada together to seek their fortune.
He and one of his brothers set up their own farm in Govan, Saskatchewan, choosing the location because it ‘sounded Scottish’. Sadly they were cursed with tough weather including droughts, hail and washed-out crops.
Five years later Mr Smith returned to Scotland, following the death of his father, and started earning a living by driving lorries for his brother George as they took over the family farm.
In 1937 he married wife Isobel, and she helped him as moved on to running his own farm in Perthshire, where they raised their children, Irene and Allan.
Farming was an important business in the Second World War, with food supplies to Britain being attacked by the Germans, so Mr Smith kept at it, while serving in the Home Guard.
He did not retire until he was 70 – in 1978, 40 long years ago – but kept his hand in by regularly showing up at the farm until he was in his 80s. His wife Isobel died in 2003, aged 97. Mr Smith’s son Allan, who had worked alongside his father on the land for four decades, sadly died two years ago, aged 76.
Mr Smith himself lived alone until around then, but since a fall has shared a home with his daughter Irene Noble, a sprightly 80-year-old, in St Madoes, Perthshire. He has two grandchildren, with one, grandson Iain Smith, having followed in his father’s footsteps by both emigrating to Canada and marrying an Isobel.
He has also maintained links with religion. First a member of the Free Church, he switched to the Church of Scotland in 1945 and has remained a worshipper to this day.
Last year he was honoured to have a birthday visit from the Moderator of the national church’s General Assembly, the Right Rev Russell Barr.
Mr Smith said: ‘It is wonderful to have a visit from the Moderator. How he finds time to see me is quite something. I have always loved the church as it has given me so much over the years.’
He still enjoys a game of Scrabble, and is considered so remarkable that US scientists at Boston University contact him every year to do a blood test and ask him if he knows who the Prime Minister is. He does.
His daughter Mrs Noble said: ‘Dad smoked until he was 80 – that’s the secret to living to 109.’