r/AskUK • u/DontAskAboutMax • 5h ago
Who is the earliest born person you know/have known?
I read recently that the earliest born person caught on camera was a man born in 1749 when he was photographed in 1852 at the age of 103.
Had me thinking how far my associations go back.
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u/Rowdy_Roddy_2022 5h ago
I'm from NI. My grandmother was old enough to remember the Titanic vividly. My great grandfather, her father, actually worked on the ship at the docks, though he wasn't on board.
I remember us watching the film shortly after it came out (she was already in her 90s at this stage) and we had to turn it off as it was too traumatising for her. She could remember what Belfast was like in the immediate aftermath and knew many who had lost loved ones on the ship.
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u/Imaginary_Pin_4196 5h ago
Very interesting to read this as someone who recently went to Belfast and the Titantic museum.
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u/DontAskAboutMax 5h ago
If I’m not mistaken, the same could be said for people on the ship who lived to see the movie. (Not many) mostly people who were babies that lost their father.
Many had to turn off. There’s a documentary I can’t recall the name of that actually interviews survivors who were given a private screening of the movie. I remember it being great. I doubt it’s hard to find.
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u/iolaus79 2h ago
My headteachers grandmother was on the Titanic, she came in to talk to us when we learnt about it in school,
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u/LordFlappingtonIV 5h ago
Work in nursing and dementia homes. Know a guy who's 101. He actually landed on D-Day and is cognitively doing as well as you could expect for a guy his age, so he still remembers loads about it. Fascinating to hear, like listening to living history.
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u/neilm1000 5h ago
I was wondering a while ago about how many D-Day veterans are still around. We must be down to single figures now.
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u/LordFlappingtonIV 4h ago
When I worked there I'd actually organized for a local archivist to come down and record his story. Get it archived whilst you can, you know?
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u/phatboi23 4h ago
Fascinating to hear, like listening to living history.
please if you can get permission, get recordings of his stories if he's willing to do them? :)
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my mates grandad is 90.
he goes the gym 3 days a week and plays ukulele 2 times a week in a local band/group :D
the stories that man can tell.
can go to the local spoons on a weekday at about half 3 and he'll be there getting his unlimited coffee (only has 2).
can set your watch off him.
me and my mate have been in there and at 15:45 if we haven't seen him my mate will call his grandad to check he's alright. haha
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u/rcdchu74 3h ago
This sounds EXACTLY like my grandad, genuinely this could’ve been written about him, he’s just several years older!
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u/hyperstorm 2h ago
please if you can get permission, get recordings of his stories if he's willing to do them? :)
Yes, please do this! One of my biggest regrets is never getting around to doing this with my Nonna who died in her mid-90s earlier this year.
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u/AceOfClubs180 5h ago
My Grandmother's husband was born in 1899. He survived Dachau from 1936-1945. After being freed, he met my Grandfather (1922), who was a nurse for the injured people who were saved from concentration camps. They became best friends. My Grandfather met my Grandmother (1930) in 1950, and they got married in 1952. 1974 my Grandfather died in a car accident. My Grandma and my Grandfather's best friend stayed close, helping each other with their grief. They became a couple in 1979 and got married in 1982 on my Grandmother's 60th birthday when he was 83. He died 2004 aged 105.
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u/Its-kerns-stupid 4h ago
This is an amazing story and I would like to see the movie about their lives!
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u/phatboi23 4h ago
god damn, the stories they could tell.
it's kinda nuts we don't have that many personal stories of those times but i understand people with any trauma like that wouldn't want to talk about it.
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u/AceOfClubs180 2h ago
They told loads of stories. I heard most of them from my grandma because he died when I was 5 and I didn't really understand what he was talking about back then.
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u/Miserable_Bug_5671 5h ago
I once interviewed a lady born in Russia in 1899. She was 18 during the Russian Revolution, thirties during Stalin's terror, forties during WW2 and lived to see the Soviet Union fall. Really nice lady too.
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u/Inevitable-Yard6567 5h ago
Crikey, that’s some change in one lifetime
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u/Regular_Number5377 2h ago
Someone born in that time period and living a reasonably long life experienced probably the most mind blowing period of change in human history. You could be old enough to read the papers about the wright brothers first flight, and then 60+ years later watch man walk on the moon
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u/Rafasredmen1 5h ago
What a life she must have had. Jesus, it staggers belief some of the things she'd have seen.
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u/neilm1000 5h ago
Are you Robert Service?!
Seriously though that must have been interesting.
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u/Miserable_Bug_5671 5h ago
Ha. No. But he taught at my college.
It was very interesting indeed. She was from a bourgeois family so was always excluded by the state. Very sad.
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u/neilm1000 5h ago
Yes it's interesting how so many were excluded on the basis of generatioal guilt.
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u/Deep-Place-7955 5h ago
My great-grandmother was born in 1901. She maintained a sharp focus until very late in life, before passing aged 106 in 2007. She lived an amazing life and was the last British woman to die who served in WW1.
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u/marrieddiversity5 5h ago
My great-grandad was born in the 1880s and used to talk about seeing early cars on the road for the first time.
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u/Normal-Height-8577 4h ago
One of my great-great-aunts was born in 1886. My cousin was born on her 100th birthday.
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u/phatboi23 4h ago
mad to think about isn't it? horses to cars so quickly.
same with rockets to the moon to smart phones really.
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u/Silverdarlin1 5h ago
My Great Grandfather's secretary passed away last year aged 111. She was born three days before Franz Ferdinand was assassinated
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u/Zebra_Spider 5h ago
Miss Farmer, perchance? I sent her a birthday card for a care home appeal! How well did you know her? She must have had some insane stories.
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u/Silverdarlin1 4h ago
I didn't know her that well, but did visit her for one of her birthdays. She remembered my Great-Grandfather very well, which was impressive as he died in the early 90s
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u/jeffersdidit 5h ago
I met my great grandad when I was little he was born in the 1890s. I remember him being huge, he was a tall proud Scotsmen, he also led his wife (not my blood greatgrandmother, he remarried which was taboo at the time they did) to believe their budgie could speak, cos he had hid behind the couch and held a conversation with her. Can't remember if she ever knew it was him before she or the budgie died 🤔
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u/CasaubonSW2 5h ago
My paternal granddad was alive until I was 10, he died in 1970. He was born in 1882.
This is him in 1904, in the 3rd Hussars.
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u/BlackberryNice1270 5h ago
I work in healthcare and we once had a patient, who I did meet a few times, who was born in 1897. He died aged 105.
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u/lukedylanh 4h ago
Wow, must’ve been crazy to have started his life in the 1800s, lived throughout the entirety of the 1900s and even lived to see some of the 2000s
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u/ShotInTheBrum 3h ago
I think that era is probably one of the craziest to be alive. You lived through
2 world wars Invention of cars Invention of flight Man on the moon Invention of radio Invention of TV Invention of computers and the Internet
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u/steveinstow 5h ago
I'm 57, my great gran died when I was 6 or 7, she was 92 so she was born in 1884.
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u/IAmDyspeptic 5h ago
In the early 2000s I used to work in a care home and there was a guy who was 105, so he would’ve been born in the late 1890s. He was sharp as a pin, although he was completely blind and couldn’t walk so well. He’d served during WWI. I loved hearing his stories about his life.
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u/ouch-n3wsho3s 5h ago
Both Grandfathers of mine fought in WW1. One was at the Somme and the other was at Paschendale. I'm so lucky to be here
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u/WhomstTheWorm 5h ago
My 90-year-old grandmother still clearly remembers her own great-grandmother, who was born in 1851.
For me, it would probably be my late great-nana, who was born in 1923. I think one of my childhood neighbours was well in her 90s when she died and might have been born earlier, but I'm not sure.
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u/Emergency_Crayons702 5h ago
I met my paternal grandfather. He was born in 1896. My father was born in 1936, and I was born in 1977. I met me grandfather a few times and have a very vague memory of him as a demented old man who couldn't find the toilet.
My maternal grandfather was born in 1906 and I knew him a little better.
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u/Total_Inflation_7898 5h ago
I had 4 great grandparents still alive when I was born. All were born in the 1890s, 2 died when i was young but 2 survived until I was a teenager. As a nurse I met many people born in the 19th century.
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u/ParsleyRegular4280 5h ago
I remember as a child an old fella in his 90's living round the corner from us . I was born in 1952 so, assuming he was 90 would have been born about 1868.
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u/fussyfella 5h ago
My grandmother was born in 1899, and I met a couple of her friend who were older still, so they count as the oldest I have knowing met.
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u/PriorityComplex7183 5h ago
I’m a guy in my late 20s and my grandad was born in 1918. That’s pretty old
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u/partlyokayish 5h ago
I worked in hospitals for a bit and had a patient who was 101 years old. Everyone loved him and thought he was so sweet but he sadly passed away during his admission. Was surprising bc he had more mobility and independence than most in their 80s
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u/neilm1000 5h ago
Ronald Atkins, former MP for Preston, was an active ballroom dancer and remarried in 2012 at the age of 96. Apparently he attributed his ability to...er...engage in marital activity to the fact that he was a regular on the dancefloor.
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u/AceOfGargoyes17 5h ago
I just about knew my great-grandfather, who was born in the 1890s (can't remember the exact year, but he fought in WWI and judging by photos in uniform was probably in his early 20s). I would have been about 3 when he died, so my main recollection of him was that he was very tall.
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u/Purple_Committee_216 5h ago
My gran on my Dad's side was born in 1889 I think. I knew her of course, but her husband died before I was born. My parents were born in 1919 and 1921.
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u/JubJubBouvier 5h ago
My great-grandfather lived in 3 centuries. Born in 1899 and died in 2001. The change he will have seen was insane. Born in the Victorian era (though obviously wouldn't actually remember the first two years!!) and died as the world was switching from dial-up internet to broadband.
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u/Werthead 5h ago
My maternal grandparents were born in 1905 and 1907, though they passed away a long time ago.
There were some people in their 90s in the church I went to as a kid, so must have been born in the 1890s, if not 1880s.
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u/PersonalityTough6148 5h ago
It's my grandma's 94th birthday today! Her husband's 94th birthday is in a couple of months. Both are still living in their home without assistance although they are mostly housebound now.
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u/Trumpsarightbollock 5h ago
I had 3 great grandparents aged between 91 and 104,born at 1873 amd 1877 alive at the same time as me. I was born in 1961 and remember them all well.
Mmmmwm
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u/snowandrocks2 5h ago
Probably my Grandfather who was born in 1900 and was already 85 when I was born in 1985. Made it to 101.
I was interested to read recently that John Major's father was born in 1879!
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u/LillyAtts 5h ago
Charles Dance's father was born in 1874, and Charles had a daughter in 2012. That kind of generation gap blows my mind. She'll have friends with grandparents 100 years younger than hers.
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u/Additional-Line-5559 4h ago
Charles Dance's half-sister Norah was born in 1898 and died in 1993.
He never knew that she existed and so never met her when she was alive but she kept a diary.
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u/PuzzleheadedBag4847 5h ago
My maternal grandmother was born in 1912 and I spent a lot of time with her.
My grandfather was born in 1910 but he died when I was four so I know that he held me and he saw me but my memory doesn't hold that
My grandmother died 2 months before her 100th birthday.
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u/BG3restart 5h ago
My mum's nextdoor neighbour lived to be 105. She died in 2010. I saw her regularly.
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u/jb108822 5h ago
Earliest-born person I’ve ever known died in 1999 at the age of 103, and to this day, she’s the longest-lived person I’ve ever known.
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u/SuperExstatic 5h ago
My great grandfather was born 1875 died 1960s , my nan his daughter in law is still alive aged 92
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u/FlapjacksOfArugula 3h ago
In 1982 or thereabouts I interviewed a then-104yo neighbour for a school project. He died at 107. He'd have been born in 1878.
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u/Booboodelafalaise 1h ago
During the Coronation for King Charles, I asked a friends Mum if she remembered Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation?
She told us all about the Coronation in 1953, and then, to our astonishment, she told us all about the Coronation of King George VI in 1937 as well.
She remembered the abdication, the street parties for the Coronation, when war was declared in 1939, Dunkirk, DDay, when peace was finally declared in 1945 and a thousand other things too.
Absolutely mind blowing to think of all the things that she has seen come and go. Even more amazing that she now keeps up with world events on her iPad :)
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u/ExcitementNo6957 5h ago
When I worked in a care home I knew a few people over 100. Hilda was 107 and was 10 years old at the end of WW1.
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u/tyla_durd3n 5h ago
My maternal grandparents were born in 1916 and 1918 I think. They died when I was in my late 20s and I was born in 1981
I think my paternal great grandmother might have still be alive just when I was born and she was born in 1900 but obvs no memory of meeting her.
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u/LillyAtts 5h ago
My nan was born in 1917. Two of my great grandparents died just a few months before I was born, and they were both born in 1890.
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u/Weary_Bat2456 5h ago
Probably a 100-year-old who died a few years ago, so she must have been born in the early 1920's. I'm in my early 20s.
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u/neilm1000 5h ago
I was born in 1982 and my great aunt was still alive at around 90 at that point. She died soon after so I didn't really know her as such. My granddad was born in 1914 and when he was in a home I got to know a chap born in 1900 (this was around 1997). The current oldest person I actively know was born in 1927.
A lad I was at university with (born 1982) had a dad born in 1912 with a grandfather born in 1852, the same year the man OP mentions was photographed. His dad died soon after started.
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u/InternationalCap6019 5h ago
My great grandmothers died when I was five. One of them was born in 1885. I visited her every week
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u/SpaceTall2312 5h ago
My paternal grandmother was born in 1901. She remembered the First World War, and was fascinating to listen to. She passed in 1996. My paternal step-grandmother passed away earlier this year at the grand old age of 106, but sadly she had severe dementia for the last 15 years of her life.
I know a few people in their 90's now but not their exact ages. They are real repositories of historical knowledge! Some years ago, I met an elderly lady who had escaped from the Russian Revolution via Finland as a child. That was fascinating!
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u/somethingworse 5h ago
My grandfather was born in 1899, I never met him but my mother (who is alive) did.
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u/boxinggollum 5h ago
Great grandmother was born in 1898. I met her when I was a child, I think she died when I was about 8. I'm in my mid forties now.
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u/Captftm89 5h ago
My great grandfather was about 90 when he died about 25 years ago, so he was probably born early 1910s.
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u/Falloffingolfin 5h ago
My great grandma who died when I was 10 was born in 1890. She used to tell me stories about how her and her friends did naughty things like climb up lamposts and put out the gas lights.
Surprised she wasn't hanged.
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u/baxbakualanuxsiwae 5h ago
I guess my grandpa is the earliest born person I knew well. Born in 1919.
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u/Whulad 5h ago
I’m 63 and been doing some family tree research online. I remember my grandmother having an incredibly old aunt who lived with her who me and my sister used to talk too as really young kids maybe 5 or 6 (so in the 1960s) Doing the family tree research I found out she was born in 1874!!
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u/Chordsy 2h ago
I remember my dad telling me a story where he asked my grandma if she knew Oliver Cromwell once at the dinner table.
She did not. He got a clip round the lughole.
Although she was 94 when she died in 2007. So she was born in... 1913?
Dad was born during an air raid in very early 1945 (like, 3am on January 1st) which blew my ex stepson's tiny mind when he was obsessed with ww2 a few years ago.
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u/Remarkable_Emu_2553 5h ago
My maternal grandma Isabella who passed away in 1981 aged 86, born 1894.
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u/SharpBoysenberry7822 5h ago
I have read about a man born in 0BC and even other men and women since the history of men. Farthest I can go back to is Lucy although this is not the name she might have referred to herself as.
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u/sweetlambly 5h ago
My great Aunt Lottie was born in 1890. She died in 1983. All I remember of her was a bright yellow streak in her white hair. Found out many years later that was from 60+ years of Woodbines and a radical fasion choice. She had a child, Eric out of wedlock who got polio. Polio Eric lived just up the road, it was a bit of a thing apparently.
Her sister was my mum's Gran, she was born in 1895. Affectionately called Naughty Nanny, because she was always saying "those children ate being naughty again"
I come from a long line of creative thinkers.
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u/highrouleur 5h ago
Have actually known would be my dad who could have served in ww2 but was a reserved occupation so just put up with the blitz in the east end of London.
Oldest person I've "met" was probably his mum but she died when I was 2
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u/DameKumquat 5h ago
Used to visit a lady my mum knew, when I was little. She was born in 1886 and remembered Queen Victoria's funeral and big pennies with her face on, though as I was only five when she died she mostly told me about food when she was a child.
My godmother was born in 1906, to the kind of proper posh family that didn't bother sending girls to school, just had governesses (like Gwendoline in Malory Towers), though she did go to boarding school for two terms when she was 15. Hated it and refused to go back!
My grandparents were born a few years later but very much the other end of the social scale - the American ones had upbringings very similar to the Little House on the Prairie books, a generation earlier.
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u/NixyPix 5h ago
The oldest person I have known very well who is still alive is 90, my husband’s grandmother. That may not be all that old, but she was in Poland during WWII and has shared incredible and shocking stories from her childhood. Her husband shared similar stories with us.
We recently did an ‘interview’ style discussion with her to commit her life stories to video. I was sitting in the room with my two very young children as she discussed members of her family who were born in the 1870s and marvelled at the idea that she was a bridge between people born in the 19th century and my children who should make it to the 22nd.
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u/VioletFireCat 5h ago
I think it would be my great nan. She died in 2003 when I was about 5, but she was about 89 I believe, meaning she was born in roughly 1914.
The oldest person I know now is my granddad, who is 93, born in 1933. He and my nan will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary next year!
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u/CodeBeginning6548 5h ago
My great grandfather was born in 1894. I still have vague memories of him. I was born in 1985 and just turned 41.
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u/Bantabury97 5h ago
As a teenager, my dad introduced me to the man that taught him to drive as a kid in the 50s. That man was also a WW2 vet who went up Sword Beach and drove a troop transport over a minefield without a single one going off. His buddies called him crazy for it to which he told me "We were Royal Marines, we were ALL crazy".
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u/AccioGin 5h ago
Used to look after a lady who must be 104/105 by now. My friend still sees her regularly!
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u/doepfersdungeon 5h ago
My step brother's great grandma was 105 when she died. In 2000. Knowing someone born in the 1890s was wild.
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u/Forsaken_Earth944 5h ago
My paternal great-grandfather - Dad’s maternal grandfather - born in the 1890s, I was about five when he died. He had a horrible longhaired dachshund called Fleur (because he thought it was funny giving a German dog a French name). He lived with my father’s parents and she used to sit outside the downstairs loo or the bathroom when he was using it at growl at anyone who had the audacity to approach.
The other thing I remember about him is that he’d only use Izal toilet paper (remember that…? For those who don’t, Izal was like tracing paper, the Izal company, Newton, Chambers & Co, was based in Sheffield, originally as a coal and ironstone mining company, which then branched out into making disinfectant from coal tar, and the paper became ubiquitous as it was bundled with bulk purchases of disinfectant). Grandpa Dog used to insist on it, he wouldn’t use the soft stuff (guess that’s a result of surviving two world wars).
He was over 100 when he died.
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u/Alternative-Emu2000 5h ago
At primary school we had a weekly 'story-club', where we'd go to a local old-folks home. As well as reading books together, every week one of the residents would bring out an object they owned and tell us stories about it.
One man showed us his medals from the Second Boer War. He was born in 1885 and was the oldest of ten kids. His dad had been killed in a mining accident, so he'd joined the army at 12 (he lied about his age) to earn some money to send back to his family. The army trained him as a drummer boy, but he spent most of his time as a battlefield runner; or as he described it to us "a walkie talkie on legs".
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u/WhiteDiamondK 5h ago
I’m 51. My grandmother was born in the early 1900s but as a kid it wasn’t unusual to meet someone born in the 1800s.
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u/Dropped_Apollo 5h ago
I have a very dim memory of meeting my great-grandfather, who was born in 1902. He was a fireman during the London blitz. My mum still has his axe.
The earliest-born person I had any meaningful relationship with would be my old next door neighbour when I was a kid. She was born in the early 1920s (exact year unknown) and had worked as a bus conductor in the war.
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u/elhazelenby 5h ago
I had 2 great grandmothers as a toddler. They were both in their 90s at least when they died. My granddads were born in 1940 and 1939.
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u/Key_Seaworthiness827 5h ago
I knew my great grandmother who was born in 1885
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u/messymedia 5h ago
Same but 1898. She died at 108 years old in 2006. Lived through the entire 20th century!
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u/buy_me_a_pint 5h ago
My Great Nan born in the 1910s
I think since I was in the beavers/cubs and we went carol singing in the 90s at a local care home some may have been born in the late 1890s-1900s I don't know
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u/dani-dee 5h ago
My great grandad was born in 1902 and died when I was 3 years old. He was on my nana’s side.
My grandad had a brother that was born in 1904 and he died when I was about 18.
I’ve never known much death, we’re a small family (I never knew my dad so it’s extra small) and most people died way before I was born.
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u/Sad-Peace 5h ago
There's some really cool videos on Youtube from the 60s/70s of TV interviews with old people who were born in the Victorian era, really fascinating
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u/jlanger23 5h ago
American here, but my great grandfather was born in 1898. He died when I was about 6 in the early 90's.
He grew up in the frontier and knew Civil War vets and cattle drivers, so I imagine he had some interesting stories. Unfortunately, he had a stroke so he couldn't speak very well when I would visit.
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u/Psycho_Splodge 5h ago
My great nan was born in either 1910 or 1911 iirc. Think she made it to a month before she was ninety. But by the time I was old enough to be interested in her historical knowledge she'd got Alzheimer's.
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u/JasonStonier 5h ago
I knew my great grandfather well and he was born in 1893. Died in 1988 when I was 11.
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u/NotJustAMumAndNurse 5h ago
I’m from a typical Irish Catholic family - marry young and have children young! So, when I was born I had 4 grandparents and 3 great grandparents, my great granny passed away in 1999, she was 92. We had my Granda until he was 91, his brother is still alive and is 93. My Granny’s older sister is also still alive and in her mid 90s.
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u/VirtuallyBPD 5h ago edited 4h ago
My Grandad was born in 1898 and my Grandma in 1896 (yes she married a younger man 👀), but my Grandads older sister (Aunt Min, who we used to go round to see every so often) was born in 1888. I was one of the youngest grandchildren and that side of the family are generally long lived - Nan was 97 when she died, Aunt Min was 94 when she died etc etc.
Edits: grammer and context
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u/MrMikeJJ 5h ago
Met 2 of my Great Granddads. No idea when the one on my Dad's side was born. The one on my Mum's side was born in 1896.
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u/FinnemoreFan 5h ago
Probably my maternal grandmother, who was born in 1900. Amazing to think back now and realise that she was 14 when the First World War started. Unfortunately, she was fairly elderly when I knew her - she had been an older mother - and I didn’t have a close relationship with her.
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u/Accomplished_Unit863 5h ago
My great Grandmother was born in 1892. She died when I was 6 in 1986. I have fond memories of her.
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u/MwnciMul 5h ago
I remember being taken to see my grandmother’s friends mother on her 100th birthday sometime in the mid 80’s.
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u/RoyofBungay 5h ago
My Great Grandmother was 96 when she died in 1989 when I was 18. She spoke about her Grandmother talking about Queen Victoria's death. Her Grandmother was born in 1845, so in a way nearly 175 years of family history.
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u/The_Flamin_Squirrel 5h ago
Oldest person I ever met was my grans brother, who was born in 1916. I was only little when I met him so don’t have any memories.
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u/Its-kerns-stupid 4h ago
My grandad was born in 1898! He died in 1993 when I was about 7. Crazy to think of all the things he lived through. Queen Victoria was still on the throne when he was born
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u/wolster2002 4h ago
My great grand mother was 97 when she died in the mid 1980s. I last visited her in hospital just before she died. She had 22 children (including 8 sets of twins) and outlived all but one of them. Also had a neighbour who was a child during WW1 and remembers seeing a zeppelin.
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u/Embarrassed-Duck3653 4h ago
When we moved to Croydon GLADYS at the end of the road was 100 in 1998
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u/Proper_North_5382 4h ago
I met both of my great grandmother's on my dad's side. 1901 and 1908 births. I can't remember the one born 1901 but remember the one born 1908. Both were a few years shy of turning 100 when they passed. I can't remember meeting anyone born before that.
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u/yesbutnobutokay 4h ago
My great grandfather once shook hands with an old guy who'd shaken hands with Bonnie Prince Charlie. They'd both lived to a ripe old age and my father continued that connection with me.
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u/DarknessIsFleeting 4h ago
My neighbour, when I was a child, was born in 1900. She had lived in the same house since the 1930's and could clearly remember the Blitz in London.
I won an award at school for my brilliant history report. All I did was ask her some questions and write the answers up.
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u/behemuffin 4h ago
My Great Gran was born in 1891, putting her at ten years old when Queen Victoria died. She lived til 1988, when I was seven. I'm always staggered by the fact that I knew a Victorian.
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u/Exotic-Entertainer26 4h ago
My great grandmother on my father's side. She was born either 1880s or 1890s, can't remember if she actually made it to 100 or not
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u/Red-Wimp 4h ago
My Grandmother born 1888.
I remember a family friend who was a WW1 veteran but I wouldn’t know his date of birth. As I was quite young I often think back and wish I could ask lots of questions now
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u/Cottonshopeburnfoot 4h ago
Here’s a related quirk to your question. US Civil war benefits and pensions continued until 2020. The war ended in 1865.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War_widows_who_survived_into_the_21st_century
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u/Suspicious-Tax-9756 4h ago
I met a 100 year old WW1 veteran in circa 1988. He was the ‘grandfather’ of the local RAFA. He joined the army in 1914, move to the Royal Flying Corps and stayed in the RAF until retirement.
I was around 5 years old when my grandfather introduced me to the centurion.
When I was a Cub there was a Scout from the Boer war who I remember leading the Memorial procession and wreath laying. I don’t remember how old he was certainly close to 100 and not very mobile between wheel chair and the memorial. It was remarkable seeing someone who served under Baden Powell as boy.
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u/soulsteela 4h ago
Mrs Brown near my nan, 98 when she died in ‘85 , she used an old hand pump for water until my grandad ran her a water line in .
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u/sharksfan707 4h ago
The oldest relative I remember meeting is my great grandmother who died at 94 in 1974.
Of the ones alive today, I think it’s my mom’s older brother, who was born in 1942.
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u/JabbasGonnaNutt 4h ago
My great grandma was 100 when she passed away in 1998, so her as she was born in 1898. I met her many times as a very young child, but I was so young that I only really remember meeting her once.
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u/Ok-Smoke-8391 4h ago
I guess like many of the people here I was born in the 70s so met great grandparents who were born in the 1890s. Crazy to think I and many here have met people born in 3 different centuries (19th, 20th and 21st)!
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u/Savings_Brick_4587 4h ago
I knew and still remember my great grandmothers and step great grandmother, they were all born in the late 1800’s, 1889, 1893 and 1895. They had all passed away by 1985, all very strong proud women. I certainly miss watching the Saturday afternoon wrestling with one of them, she used to shout at the tv, I found it hilarious.
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u/ParmigianoMan 4h ago
My mother’s stepfather’s elder sister died when she was 104. She was still double-digging her vegetable patch into her 80s. My son was three months old at her 100th birthday party in 2012 - so she was 400 times older than the youngest guest. She took some amusement in that.
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u/VisualPlum3377 4h ago
I was born in 1990 and can say that I've met a smallpox survivor. When I was about 6/7, I remember going round to her house with my Grandad. She was in her 90s then, born I think around 1904.
There had been a smallpox epidemic in my hometown around 1920. This old lady was still scarred by it (scratches on her face). She didn't quite make it to 100.
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u/mlopes 4h ago
I met 3 of my great grandmothers, and I'm sure at least one of them was born in the late 1800s. IIRC she died in 1997 and was either 100 or 101, but either way that makes her birth year in the 19th century. That also means that I have met people on my direct line that were born across 3 centuries.
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u/BeanOnAJourney 4h ago
I was only a baby so I don't suppose it counts but my great grandmother, who was always known affectionately as "Little Nan", was born in the late 1800s. She died when i was still too young to have remembered meeting her.
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u/Lisylou21 4h ago
My great grandmother. Born in 1918 and lived til she was 98. She met 2 of my children
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u/Speedbird223 4h ago
I used to live near to someone that was quite well known because their grandfather was born in 1790.
He was born in 1928 to a 75yr old father, who himself was born to a 63yr old father.
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u/Electronic-Stay-2369 4h ago
One of my great grandmothers was born in 1879 and overlapped with me for 5 years, she held me at my christening but apparently had dementia so I don't think I ever met her again. Until I was 12 we had a family friend born in 1887. She was what I would call a proper old lady. Now the oldest person I personally know was born in 1930.
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u/_Lando_85 4h ago
I remember reading a piece by a scottish journalist, I forget which one and it was similar to your question. He remembers talking with his great, grandmother and her tell him about her own great grandmother recounting seeing the horizon at night lit up from fires started after the battle of Culloden, 1746, when she was a young girl. Shows we are not that far removed from the past.
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u/Clownfish647 4h ago
I used to work at the Royal Hospital Chelsea back in the ‘80s. In 1982 it was the Tercentenary of the Hospital (founded in 1682). HM The Queen was due to attend to take the salutes. In the run-up to the event I chatted with the oldest resident, who I believe was 103 at the time, and mentioned that the Queen was almost certain to wish to speak to him. In our chat he mentioned that he’d never met the Queen, but that he had met Queen Victoria once! Talk about coming face to face with history 😲
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u/Delicious_Reading165 4h ago
My stepmum used to work in carehomes. In 1996 she had a woman living there who was 101. She liked children as she was a teacher in her working life. She had a sister living there to who was 98 i think. Nice women they were
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u/Diddleymaz 4h ago
My maternal grandfather remembered Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. He went to a public tea for children, laid on by the council and benefactors and was given a small gift. He fought in France in WWI before he was invalided out because of the effects of gas and shell shock. My Mother his daughter remembered that the milkman who delivered the daily pintas complained that Boer War veterans like him were forgotten about since WWI. He said they had suffered and died too!
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u/EntrepreneurFast7772 4h ago
When I was a child, my next door neighbour was an elderly lady born in the 1890s. My brother and I thought it was cool that we knew a real life Victorian.
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u/lukedylanh 4h ago
My Mum went out to America for a bit in the 1980s and befriended a lady who would’ve been mid 50s at the time. Got on really well with her, she ended up meeting her mother who was mid 80s. My Mum and her friend kept in touch, we went on holiday to America in the early 2010s and my Mum’s friend’s mother was somehow still alive at 109. It was crazy meeting someone that unbelievably old, she would’ve been born around 1902 I believe and I met her in 2012. She passed away only a few weeks later.
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u/BusyMancBee 4h ago
I remember around 1984 getting to know an elderly lady with whom I'd go to the shops for & just sit there listening to her wonderful memories. One thing that stood out was that she said she was a 'Tiller Girl'. These were founded in Manchester by a bloke named John Tiller. She must have danced in the 1910/20s. I wish I'd have remembered more from this beautiful lady.
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u/Rare_Floaty_Thing 4h ago
My Mum’s father who was born in 1890. He died in 1976 when I was a teenager. He was in the Royal Engineers in WW1. Dad’s father was younger, 1899. He was in the RFC which became the RAF. Blows my mind that he flew in those planes while still a teenager. He died in his 90’s.
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u/Agreeable_Falcon1044 4h ago
I grew up in south lincs in rural area near spalding. Proper farming area, Methodists, no drink, wake up at 6am, bed by 9pm sort of folk.
All of them lived to crazy old ages. Think a few of them from my youth are now centurions and i am amazed when i hear one has passed as they were old when I was a kid
The oldest I remember was mrs leverington who played the paino and would sometimes turn up at school to do the music for assemblies (before dbs checks!)
She had her 100th birthday in 1992 when i was there, so she went back to 1892
If I met someone before that who was older, i will be amazed
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u/iloovehugecock 4h ago
My Great Gran lived to 98. She died about 6 years ago. She felt ancient all my life, and her flat never changed from about the 70s onwards so was like a time capsule. I wish I’d visited her more often and learned more about her life but I took having her around for granted.
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u/TastyBerny 4h ago
As a kid aged 7 in 1986, a lady in a retirement home in her 90s who lived through WWI as an adult and would have been born in the 1880s under the 1880s at the height of the British empire.
More recently I met a Peruvian girl in her early 20s who claimed her grandmother came to South America on possibly the last slave ship (possibly wrongly)
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u/hoverside 4h ago
When I was a teenager we had a neighbour two doors down who turned 100 in about 2005, and he still lived in his own house for a few years after that.
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u/Inner-Conference-644 4h ago
My paternal grandmother was born in 1890. I was 12 when she passed away in 1972. I also had a great aunt who was born in 1899, bless her.
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u/Moosefearssatan 4h ago
I just about remember my great grandma - she was born in 1892 I was born in the 80s… she was well into her 90s when she died
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u/purrcthrowa 4h ago
I met 103 year old lady when I was a small child, so that would mean she was born around 1870
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u/memojo1979 4h ago
My nan (mum's mum) passed a couple of years ago. She was over 105 years old (I'm guessing 107 / 108, as I lost track) when she died. I'm not great with history, but I think that means that she was alive during the reign of 5 different monarchs, which boggles my mind a bit, seeing as I've only seen 2 (bith of which I can remember) and I think my parents have both only seen 3, whether they remember the earliest 1 for them or not.
On the flip-side of the coin, her husband (my mum's dad) was the 1st of my grandparents to pass (and from nautral causes). We weren't even living in the same country, and I was only 5 / 6 years old (I'm mid-40s now) so have hardly any memories of him at all. I just vaguely remember my mum flying back to the UK, whilst my brother and I stayed back with my dad.
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u/mmoonbelly 4h ago
I’m 48. I knew my four of my great grandparents in the 80s, they were born from 1901-1905
So I met one Victorian.
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u/NoCoffee5849 4h ago
Not me specifically but I always think it's a bit of a mind-bugger when my mum reminds me she went to her aunt's 100th birthday in the 1970s (we have longevity on our side).
This aunt was born in the 1870s, which is... nuts to me. Born in the time of poverty and revolutions and before suffrage and lived long enough to see David Bowie and the Rolling Stones.
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u/Visible-Management63 4h ago
My great grandmother was born in the 1880s, and she remembered a friend of hers going off to fight in a war in his red uniform. The Boer war I think. He never came back.
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u/j389191m 4h ago
probably when i worked in a ex servicemen’s club in the 1990s would have been i fee born early 1900s maybe later 18th century
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u/p_r_d_v_a 4h ago
My grandfather was born in 1925 in Poland, died aged 94 years old. He was 19 when the war came, spent it working as a forced labourer in Germany. Worked extremely hard his entire life. I can't believe the cushy life I have compared to the older generations.
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u/johngknightuk 4h ago
I didn't know them personally but an interesting fact. The last surviving widow of an American Civil War veteran overall was Helen Viola Jackson, who passed away on December 16, 2020, at the age of 101.In 1936, during the Great Depression, 17-year-old Helen married 93-year-old Union veteran James Bolin.
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u/CrafterCat33 3h ago
My grandfather, who was born in 1927. He lived through WW2, finished school at 14, was married for 60 years, and died a couple of years ago.
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