The world’s oldest man has died aged 112 in a UK care home, his family has confirmed.
John Alfred Tinniswood officially obtained the title after he received the sought-after Guinness World Record award in April this year following the death of previous title-holder Juan Vicente Pérez Mora when he died at the age of 114. Being older than 100, he was one of the UK’s few “supercentenarians”.
Mr Tinniswood died on Monday at a care home in Southport, Merseyside, where he lived. His family said he was “surrounded by music and love”. He was born on August 26, 1912, and had previously been the UK’s oldest man, an honour he accepted in 2020 aged 111 years and 224 days old, placing him alongside 115-year-old Ethel May Caterham, the UK’s oldest living woman.
The supercentenarian – who became a widower nearly 40 years ago in 1986 after 44 years of marriage to his wife, Blodwen – leaves behind a large family. He is survived by his daughter, Susan, four grandchildren Annouchka, Marisa, Toby and Rupert, and three great-grandchildren Tabitha, Callum and Nieve.
The lifelong Liverpool fan was born in the major UK city just 20 years after the Premier League team was founded, and met his wife at a dance while living there. He was the world’s oldest surviving male World War Two veteran, but spent the majority of his career working as an accountant for Shell and BP before his retirement in 1972.
On receiving his Guinness World Record in April, he put his longevity down to pure luck, but said he likely benefitted from a previously active lifestyle. He said: “You either live long or you live short, and you can’t do much about it. I don’t feel that age, I don’t get excited over it. That’s probably why I’ve reached it.
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“I just take it in my stride like anything else, why I’ve lived that long I have no idea at all. I can’t think of any special secrets I have. I was quite active as a youngster, I did a lot of walking. Whether that had something to do with it, I don’t know. But to me, I’m no different [to anyone]. No different at all.”
Even his diet was the same as everyone else’s, Mr Tinniswood said, telling reporters that he eats “what they give me and so does everybody else. I don’t have a special diet”. Although he did say: “If you do too much of anything, you’re going to suffer eventually.” His family commended his “many fine qualities” in a statement following the announcement of his death.
They said: “He was intelligent, decisive, brave, calm in any crisis, talented at maths, and a great conversationalist.”
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