Bob Weighton: Briton, 111, becomes world’s oldest man

Britain’s oldest man is now the oldest man in the world following the death of the previous record holder in Japan – but it’s not an achievement he seems too enamoured with.

Born on 29 March 1908, Bob Weighton has been the oldest man in the UK since last summer and took the global title after Chitetsu Watanabe died aged 112 on Sunday – days after receiving a Guinness World Record certificate.

Mr Weighton, who turns 112 next month, can now expect to receive a certificate of his own, although he says he takes no satisfaction from the milestone.

“Well, I don’t really feel satisfied because it means someone else has died,” said the former teacher and engineer.

Mr Weighton, who still lives in his own flat in Alton, Hampshire, said living to such an age was “not something I ever intended, wanted or worked for – it’s just one of those facts of life”.

“It’s good genes I guess – taking things as they come instead of worrying about them for months,” he told Sky News.

Upon celebrating his 111th birthday last year, Mr Weighton put his long life down to “avoiding dying”.

He said: “I have had the usual scares, flu, influenza, malaria, two or three operations; I ought to be dead but I am a survivor, if you like.”

Mr Weighton told Sky News he thought there were “some great drawbacks” to modern life.

“The lack of personal contact,” he said was of particular concern.

“Everyone’s walking down the street holding one of these things (smartphones), oblivious to their surroundings, and two people who know each other might walk past each other without knowing who it was!”

Asked whether his long life might be down to exercise, a certain favourite drink or a good diet, he said: “I ate what was put in front of me – no questions asked!”

Mr Weighton became Britain’s oldest man upon the death of Alfred Smith, from St Madoes, Perthshire, who was also Scotland’s oldest man and shared the same birthday.

Coincidentally, Mr Weighton – who was born in Hull – also shares the same birthday as Britain’s oldest woman.

Joan Hocquard was born in Dorset on 29 March 1908, and Britain’s second oldest woman – Violet Davies-Evans, from Spalding, Lincolnshire – was born the very next day.

But all three supercentenarians still have some way to go to catch up with the world’s oldest woman, who is 117.

Kane Tanaka marked her latest birthday with a party at a nursing home in Fukuoka, southern Japan, last month.

Upon taking a bite from a slice of her big birthday cake, she said with a smile: “Tasty, I want some more.”

(c) Sky News 2020: Bob Weighton: Briton, 111, becomes world’s oldest man