Aged 111 years and 224 days, Briton John Alfred Tinniswood officially won the distinction of oldest living man in the world on Friday April 5, according to Guinness World Records.
The dean is dead, long live the dean. Friday April 5, two days after the death of Juan Vicente Pérez at the age of 114, one month before his 115th birthday, John Alfred Tinniswood became the new oldest man in the world. Aged 111 years and 224 days, this Briton received his certificate during an interview with the Guiness who approved this new record. “We live a long time or we live a short time, and there is not much we can do about it,” he declared during this interview relayed by CNN.
Is there a secret to reaching this beautiful age? Not really, “just luck”, according to the main person concerned who indicated that he does not smoke, rarely drinks and, in England, eats fish and chips every Friday. “If you drink too much, if you eat too much, if you walk too much, if you do too many things, you will end up suffering,” he explained, implicitly indicating that excesses were never necessary.
Born the year the Titanic sank
Born in Liverpool, a city in the northwest of England, on August 26, 1912, Mr. Tinniswood lived through two world wars, as well as the pandemics of the great flu or Covid-19. He also holds the record as the world’s oldest World War II veteran, according to Guinness. He was also born the year the Titanic sank.
A lifelong fan of Liverpool Football Club, he witnessed his club’s nineteen league victories and his club’s eight FA Cup victories. This great-grandfather now resides in a retirement home in the English seaside town of Southport.
The director of this establishment, Katie Howard, told the BBC that it was an honor to care for Tinniswood, an “amazing person who has so many stories to tell” and who “loves reading the newspaper and listening to the radio.” The oldest woman in the world is Spanish: Maria Branyas Morera, aged 117.