Bill: centenarian until the recount.Lying about one's age has a long and respectable history. I'd be lying if I told you just how long or how respectable. Traditionally, if some callow youth approaches and asks you how old you are, you'll answer that you are as old as your tongue and older than your teeth. What was going on in William George William George may be:
I take no credit for digging this mysterious but charismatic Moldgreen resident out of relative obscurity. This is another oddball from the voluminous back pockets of amateur historian Jake Mangle mangle - Used similarly to mung or scribble, but more violent in its connotations; something that is mangled has been irreversibly and totally trashed. Wurzel. William George Malbert emerges from the shadows on August 1, 1954, when the Examiner announced he had celebrated his 100th birthday. August 1 included a visit from Sir Geoffrey Hutchinson, chairman of the National Assistance Board; a congratulatory telegram from the Queen; and a visit from the Mayor and Mayoress of Huddersfield, Ald and Mrs J Armitage. It's strange that no alarm bells rang about this man who rose every morning at 6am, did all his own shopping, cooking and housekeeping, and was renowned for doing a clog dance in the parlour at the Commercial Inn after supping his regular five pints a day. He seems to have been everybody's favourite grandpa figure, with his clay pipe, flat hat, comical sayings and lively sense of humour Noun 1. sense of humour - the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous; "she didn't appreciate my humor"; "you can't survive in the army without a sense of humor" sense of humor, humor, humour . Perhaps people wanted to believe him. Old Bill's undoing, it seems, was his oft-repeated story that he was born in a navvy's hut at the side of the Liverpool to Manchester Railway at Halewood, Lancashire in 1854. But this simple fact didn't undo him for another six years, during which time the visits from dignitaries and the gifts and freebies continued to increase. Bill's fame spread with each successive birthday. But in 1961, a railway enthusiast informed the Examiner that Old Bill was either 126, or should henceforth be known as Young Bill, since he could not be any older than 97. A search in the Somerset House Somerset House is a large building situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The central block of the Neoclassical building, the outstanding project of the architect Sir William Chambers, dates from records in London showed that one George William Malbert had been born in Halewood, Lancashire on August 1, 1872. This made him only 88. When presented with this information, Bill denied it flatly. "I know how old I am," he said cheerfully. Shortly after, and still claiming he was 106, he went to Huddersfield Corporation's old people's welfare home at The Homestead in Almondbury, where he died on June 6, 1962, two months shy of his 90th birthday. What's astonishing a·ston·ish tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise. about this tale is that the Post Office had no record of his age, and just issued him with a pension, presumably pre·sum·a·ble adj. That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. when he retired aged 58. Old Bill did, accidentally, trigger alarm bells at the Queen's Office, which from then on demanded that birth certificates should be supplied before a birthday telegram was sent. So did Bill believe he was 100-plus, or was he conning thousands of people? We will never know. |
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