The Watcher

She WAS 113 when she died yesterday. She was 106 (NOT 105) (a month before she was 107) when she danced with Obama. Surely you should have fixed an earlier statement by someone else that "she was 217 or something"?

Virginia McLaurin was 113 & one of her grandchildren was a great grandmother herself making Virginia a great, great great grandmother.

Tom Owen (son of Compo) has also died - no age at 73 unlike Treacher & Phillips who were in their 90's.

He cannot elope with Fergie as they live in a very nice house (smaller than Southyork of course) on the Windsor estate. Apart from the Epstein connection, his rudeness (contempt?) for staff continues to be referred to whenever any Royal-linked book is serialised. However, Margaret did not come out well in the book by her former lady in waiting (who introduced her to Roddy Llewelyan) even though she tried to concentrate on Margaret's positive points. Charles also appears extremely petulant & needy even though he does not appear as rude to staff as Andrew or as 'distant/posh/royal' as Margaret & Anne.

Marina, the widow of Lee Harvey Oswald, was born in 1941 & a real link with the past who may be with us for many more years.

Murphy has outlived his co-star Yootha Joyce from George & Mildred by 42 years. Apparently the day she died, Murphy received in the post a contract for another series of G & M. He is married to Linda Regan who played Yellowcoat April in Hi-de-Hi & is the sister of Carol Drinkwater who was the first Helen in All Creatures Great & Small. Well it is said that everyone is only Six Degrees of Separation (at most) from everyone else.

In the UK it is estimated there are around 170 people aged over 107 with 2 women aged over 113 at the top. However only around 110 appear to be on the list of the site devoted to this subject so it may be wrong to assume that there are up to 60 whose names are not known. It would be interesting to compare the percentages of countries such as China & Japan with the UK to see which has the most 107+ aged citizens.

Frustratingly, hardly any information about the Queen's relations on her mother's side at the funeral. She was close to many of them & one of her cousins was Margaret Rhodes who died in 2016 aged 91 & believed to be the only person present (apart from the Queen) when the Queen Mother died. There must have been a few Bowes-Lyons present even though they are not royal?

Also the elder brother of Angus Ogilvy who died in 2004 & was, of course, the husband of Princess Alexandra, the Queen's cousin.

Should have put the husband was 120!! Apologies so he was about 20 when bridegroom & bride was 22. Photos look realistic so clever photoshop or an amazing event which Guinness & Ripley refuse to acknowledge. The Chand's 90th wedding anniversary is also ignored except on Wiki despite regular newspaper reports from Bradford over their lives. Incidentally I have found a death notice for at least one of the Indian couple only months after the 100th anniversary.

Surely as fake as the photos & articles about an Indian couple in 2018 who celebrated their 100th (Osmium!) wedding anniversary. The husband was 100 at the time & his wife was 122. The only thing that seemed to be factually accurate was that in one report it stated that the 90th wedding anniversary name was apparently granite which I did find later on various lists.

Not universally. Fergie calls him "The most honourable man I know".

Yes, my mistake. Wrong acting dynasty! It was indeed Lord (Richard) Attenborough, his wife Sheila Sim & her younger brother Gerald who spent their final years there. In fact the Attenboroughs had been involved in fund raising previously for that very home. Sheila Sim was often confused with the actress Sylvia Sims who is 88 & to the best of my limited knowledge does not live there.

Probably an entire wing there once devoted to Last of the Summer Wine actors/actresses although not any more. I wonder who the eldest Equity member is now who lives there? Once John Mills, his wife & her brother (Gerald Sim) all lived there.

Presumably the oldest now must be Brian Murphy who played Alvin. I expect being married to one of the Yellowcoats keeps him sprightly. Spike's loss is Alvin's gain!

Online comments wishing her "a long and happy retirement" may be somewhat hopeful but let's hope anyway. She is currently playing a 98 year old in The Archers - surely the oldest character in a soap until William Roache (aka Ken Barlow) smashes her record as he has been quoted as expecting to live way beyond 100 due to his healthy lifestyle.

A very sad loss & someone who many feel (including Womble singer Mike Batt) should have been knighted. However, he seemed to be too good a guy for anything other than a relatively recent OBE - obviously not a Mason, a creep or someone who gives to political parties. Botham had his knighthood promoted to a peerage just for supporting Brexit. Bernard's wife died last year after 66 years of marriage which can often be a trigger to a decline in health. RIP Bernard.

I know Wiki is not perfect but if her details are incorrect on 'Oldest Cricketers' then it is the only error that I can find on a very detailed statistical list of deceased & living first class & Test cricketers, male & female.

When Eileen Ash died last year at the age of 110, it was incorrectly reported that she was the last Test (& probably club) cricketer to have overlapped with the life of the famous W G Grace who died on 23 October 1915. However, in the height of the cricket season when 2 days ago some county games were shortened due to extreme heat (& then yesterday due to poor light), it seems a good time to mention Thelma McKenzie of Australia (& former Test cricketer) who is 107 and was born on 6 April 1915 so she overlapped with W G Grace (born 174 years ago in 1848) for 6 months and 17 days.

Frank Williams has died only 6 days before his 91st birthday. Only Ian Lavender (76) of the regular cast of Dad's Army alive now although Frank Williams did not appear in Dad's Army until series 3. He has outlived the Verger (Edward Sinclair) by 45 years! Originally when dad's Army ended, they were going to appear in pantomome as the Ugly Sisters but Sinclair had to be replaced. When Gladys was married in the last episode of Hi-di-Hi, she was 'married' by Williams & the Verger had to be played by Colin Bean who was Private Sponge in Dad's Army. A sad week for Dad's Army fans as Gordon Peters (95) who died a week ago appeared in 4 episodes of the series and once had his own sitcom which was named after him.

John Alexander Cruickshank is 102 today. He is the last surviving person to be awarded the Victorian Cross in WW2.

Her sister Angeline is still alive!

Apart from Dr Who & Grange Hill she appeared in Eastenders. So likely to appear in various tributes. She also played Mrs Ripper [according to one obituary] in Ever Decreasing Circles. Her main contribution to that series must be suggesting to her husband, Richard Briers, that Peter Egan would be an ideal foil to Briers' character Martin Bryce who had OCD issues. Peter Egan never looked back & is still performing today as is Penelope Wilton who played Ann, the long-suffering wife of Martin Bryce.