SOME GENERATION OR ANOTHER:

OBITUARY: Buster Martin (The Telegraph, 4/14/11)

Buster Martin, who died on April 13, possibly aged 104, became celebrated at the age of 100 as “Britain’s oldest worker”, a triumph that was largely untarnished by persistent allegations that the story of his life, including his age, was fabricated.

He was feted by the media, by his employers (a south London plumbing firm for whom he worked as a van cleaner), and by politicians including the former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell, who hailed him in 2006 as “living proof of why people should not be written off once they pass retirement age”.

A former Brixton barrow boy with the looks of Captain Birds Eye, Martin hit the headlines in 2007, allegedly at the age of 100, when he signed up as an agony uncle for the men’s magazine FHM. With his straggly beard and dry wit he was irresistible copy for the press and later the same year he found fame with The Zimmers, a 40-strong group of elderly rockers (combined age: more than 3,000) who scored a hit single with a cover of The Who’s My Generation.

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