Master Obit

I believe you are confused on this occasion, actually. I'm using the GRO death index at one of the registered holders. The physical microfiche go out much earlier. The online GRO actually does have the 2022 data in the back-end already. It's just not a front-end option available.

Norman Spencer (b.13/08/1914) appears to have quietly reached his 109th birthday back in August, since he's not on the death index up to the end of Q3. Anne Baker is also fine, though she is unlikely to die off the radar.

Today marked 10 months since he entered hospice, when the expectation was that he'd have "a few days left".

Such a shock. She seemed to be in such great shape.

I see they haven't yet got a pun for his announcement on the home page. Might I suggest "game show host is toast", in reference to his brief stint as one in the 1980s? I don't think anything like it has been used before.

Deleted.

I think we're due a shock death, so I'm going for Jimmy Carter.

20 years from now:

Carter is nearing ten months in hospice care now. I was thinking about running a sweepstake of when Jimmy Carter would die at work, but I'm not sure it'll occur before I retire.

There is a very clear difference between Prince Philip at 98 and Dick Van Dyke at (almost) 98, though. Whilst it is true that heart disease is a large killer of old men, it's also true that those in the best shape tend to last longer. Dick Van Dyke's internal health is clearly pretty good to be able to have the level of functioning that he enjoys. Prince Philip was hospitalised several times in his later years, and looked like a zombie - he was only walking because he was too stubborn to submit to mobility support he clearly needed, and there'd have been no question of him dancing. Betty White certainly still retained all her marbles right to the end, but from what I've seen she was certainly ailing a bit physically in her latter years and I don't think it was a huge shock that she died. It's just that everyone was so hyped about her possibly reaching 100. I'd happily see DVD dropped. It would be good to see people chosen on account of their health as opposed to just their age.

None of this alters her probable birth year of 1935, though.

Not sure what this is in reference to?

I believe she was born Eleanor A Miller, in Q1/1935. This is because it is known that she married Howard (born: Harold) Pays, and there is a record of a Harold R Pays marrying Eleanor A Miller in Q3/1956. Answering whether she is still alive is a bit trickier - I can't find any highly probable matches on GRO or Scotland's people, however there are people that *could* be her depending on how she was listed (for instance, there's a Janet Alexander Miller in 2014). Nothing under Eleanor Miller though up to the end of 2022, from the point at which I could reasonably confirm her alive (her first husband's obituary in 2002). She could also have emigrated. The annoying thing is that I can't narrow down an exact birthday for her, which would enable me to check for certain on GRO.

I'm not even sure why he's on the list really other than being very old. The guy's in absolutely tremendous shape, and I would certainly advocate for dropping him. Sure, at 98 you might drop dead at any point, but realistically I'd say he's going to make it past 100 and there are surely far better picks especially for the number 1 spot.

A sad loss. On Open All Hours - I absolutely loved the original, but the remake was a bit of a catastrophe with the way they drew it out. Still, she seemed like a very talented actress and an unfortunate add to the string of recent deaths.

Norman Tebbit, hopefully.

I used a random generator and got Jimmy Carter. I assumed this to be due to a bug in the system, so I ran it again and got Ethel Kennedy.

Can't lie, I'd quite enjoy seeing this.

Do you just rush over to this forum every time someone dies?

The Bernard Kelly that you've marked as dying in 2007 is someone completely different (assuming you're using the Bernard Alexander Kelly from GRO, b.1918). There is a birth record for Bernard Alexander Kelly born 21/08/1928 in Kensington, and that's surely the person on this list.

You'd think Jimmy Carter really. Clearly no illness can actually kill him, but the one thing that might is losing his wife of 77 years. If that doesn't, then I think we just have to accept that he's immortal (those that haven't accepted this already.)

This is why I wanted to know the accuracy of the dates. The problem is I'm not really comfortable with saying "it's probably this one", since it could easily not be. Eg Mike Kelly - the 1920 who died last year was a Michael Leslie Kelly, who was born in Q2/1920, and there's no indication that yours was Michael Leslie. There were a few that were a year or two out with the exact same name, but that's too much inaccuracy for my liking especially if it's a reasonably common name (and I checked the day and month for that year in case it was eg 20th September 1935 and you had 20th September 1936). There were even a few with the same year, but the problem is I have to check the dates one at a time (I could create a script to run through all the dates and spit out which it was, but I'd have to feel in the mood to code that.) If anyone else has anyone they need checking, then provided I can have a list with dates then I can whittle them down quite quickly (I use the GRO index and archives a good bit for my own hobby.)

Yes, just those two. I checked every one. I've not checked the Scottish one in case any of them moved there, but I think it's unlikely. None of the racers are on the E+W 2022. A few namesakes, but none matching those DOBs. With the footballers, there were also some namesakes (and it's possible that the DOB you have for them might be wrong), but those Griffiths and Wood were the only ones that were absolutely nailed on. There was even a 1920 born Mike Kelly who died last year, but he wasn't born on the same date as yours.

Turns out that it was only a free trial that you won, not the comprehensive package.

Joss Ackland