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Happy birthday Bob! World's oldest man celebrates 112th birthday

Hip, hip, hooray!


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April 2, 2020
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Britain's oldest man Bob Weighton has officially become the world's oldest person after celebrating his 112th birthday. Happy birthday Bob! Bob, who celebrated his birthday in his assisted living home where he is self-isolating, was born on March 29 in 1908 in Yorkshire, and was one of seven children.

Bob moved to Taiwan after school where he spent two years learning Mandarin and began teaching at a missionary school. In 1937, he married wife Agnes who was also a teacher, and their first child was born in Taiwan in 1939. However, as the Second World War broke out, Bob and his family were diverted to Toronto, Canada when trying to get home to the UK.

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Bob enjoys making ornaments from recycled wood

"I was on a boat coming back to England and never got there. When we got to Hawaii we were told that war had broken out in Europe and we couldn't go to Britain anyway." 

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Bob and his young family were living in Denver, USA, at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbour, and his knowledge of the Japanese language meant he was recruited by the British Political Warfare Mission. He deciphered enemy messages and worked to disrupt the morale of the Japanese to try and help the Americans win their fight. The family eventually moved back to Britain – now with three children – when the war ended in 1945, and spent the rest of his working life as a lecturer in marine engineering at City University in London until he retired in 1973.

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Bob as a young lad

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Bob has 10 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren. Bob shared the title of Britain’s oldest man with Alf Smith, of Perthshire, as the pair were born on the same day, but Mr Smith died last year. He became the world’s oldest man in February following the death of Chitetsu Watanabe, from Japan, at the age of 112.

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