Much-loved supermarket worker Reg dies at 94 – two months after retiring
A“MUCH-LOVED colleague” thought to be the UK’s oldest supermarket worker has died at the age of 94 – two months after he retired.
Reg Buttress was a popular figure at Sainsbury’s Cwmbran superstore before his retirement in September.
Customers often stopped to have a chat with him if they spotted him in the aisles, and many had known him since they were children as he had worked there for three decades.
Reg’s grandson David Buttress, the chairman of Dragons Rugby, said Reg had been “a tremendous inspiration to all his grandchildren”.
Mr Buttress said that the Wales v Georgia game at the Principality Stadium last weekend had been the first Wales home game the 94-year-old had missed since the 1950s.
Reg had worked at Sainsbury’s for 37 years, longer than most other members of staff.
At the time of his retirement he said: “It’s something I want to do all the time. I always like to be at work meeting people. That’s the main thing in life, meeting people.”
After his death, customer David John Pegington said: “He will be greatly missed by all that knew him, especially those who shopped at Sainsbury’s in Cwmbran, but by all that knew him through his rugby career as a referee and a long-serving member of the Pontypool &, District Rugby Union. RIP Reg.”
Former workmate Paul Armstrong said: “Well done Reg, a great guy and gentleman right to the end. RIP old workmate.”
Customer Julie Lyons said: “RIP Reg such a gentlemen. I won’t forget what a lovely man you were.”
Katie Robertson said: “Poor Reg. My Nan always spoke to him every week we went shopping. RIP, thoughts are with your family.”
Reg started working when he was 13 and had never stopped. He began underground as a collier’s help, but was made redundant from that job in 1937.
He was advised by the Labour Exchange to go to Birmingham and got a job at Singer Cars, and from there went to motorcycle manufacturer BSA.
During the war he was bombed out and returned to south Wales where he got a job on the railways at Pontypool.
He was passed A1 by an Army Medical Board, but his boss persuaded the army that he was needed for essential war work.
In 1945 he married his wife of 65 years, who he met when she was chief bridesmaid at a wedding where he was best man.
The railway job lasted 25 years until he was made redundant in the Beeching cuts of the 1960s.
He started working for Sainsbury’s in 1981 at the tender age of 57.
He had retired once, when he was 65, but after just a couple of months was happy to go back part-time.
“There are times when you’re retired, especially in the wintertime, when you can’t do anything, you can’t go out. But not me, I go to work,” he said.
Reg finished work for the last time on his birthday on September 22.
He said at the time: “About a month ago I thought I’d better finish because I’m getting slower. There’s some mornings. But that’s no good, you’ve got to get up sometime, might as well get up now,” he adds.
It wasn’t all work though, Reg also refereed rugby matches for 35 years.
And his hard-working ethos has spread through the family – his grandson David Buttress is the CEO of successful restaurant website JustEat.
A Sainsbury’s spokesman said, “Reg was a much-loved colleague and an inspiration to all of us. Our thoughts are with his friends and family at this sad time. He will be missed.”