Buster Martin
Encyclopedia
Pierre Jean "Buster" Martin (1 September 1906? - 12 April 2011) claimed to be the United Kingdom
's oldest employee, stating that he was born in 1906.
Until his death, Martin worked for Pimlico Plumbers
, a well-known plumbing company in southeast London
as a van cleaner, and notably refused to take a day off on the day he celebrated what he claimed was his 100th birthday. He also received coverage in the media for fending off an attack from a group of youths in 2007; his heroics were cited by the former Liberal Democrat
leader Sir Menzies Campbell
as "living proof of why people should not be written off once they pass retirement age". Martin stated that he would not retire from working.
Doubts have been raised about all of Martin's historical claims, including his age, which may have been "only" 97 at the time of his death.
newspaper, Martin claimed to have been born "up in the hills of the Basque Country" in France
. He stated that his mother fell pregnant to a member of the affluent family she served, and he and his mother were smuggled to Britain to avoid the disgrace. His mother was put in a convent and he was placed in an orphanage near Bodmin
in Cornwall
, run by the Sisters of Mercy
, when he was three months old. Martin says that he picked up his nickname "Buster" at age three for "whacking a priest on the nose". He travelled to London, and found work running errands for stallholders in the Brixton
market, the beginning of nearly 90 years of work.
He reputedly met his future wife, Iriana, a native of Tonbridge
, Kent
, at the age of 13 (she was 12). They married a year later in France. Martin stated: "I got married in 1920 and had to go over to France as I couldn't get married here due to my legal status." It has to be noted, however, that the legal age for contracting marriage in France at the time was 18 for a boy and 15 for a girl, with the consent of their parents, or 21 without the consent of father and mother. The couple stayed together for 35 years until Iriana reportedly died in 1955, although no death certificate has been uncovered. They reportedly had 17 children, born between 1921 and 1934: "twins, triplets, singletons - all sorts", among them Roberto, Rodrigues, and triplets named Georgina, Georgia and Giselle, but again no record of their births could be found. Martin claimed that they all moved abroad.
He claimed to have left the Brixton
market aged 14, and joined the British Army
, where he became a physical training instructor. He served in World War II
, leaving the Armed Forces in 1955 after reaching the rank of regimental sergeant major
. After "taking up a wide range of trades", he returned to the market, where he worked until he was 97. After complaining of boredom, he resumed work, starting at Pimlico Plumbers in London on a twenty-hour week (three days a week) three months before his claimed 100th birthday.
On Martin's claimed centenary, his employer suggested that he take the day off to celebrate. However, he turned up for work. His colleagues threw him a surprise party at the company's headquarters and organized a tour of Chelsea F.C.
's Stamford Bridge
ground. Until 2006, Martin claimed never to have taken a day off for sickness in his ninety years of work, until an ingrown toenail forced him to take a few months' leave of work.
On 22 February 2007, while walking to a bus stop from a local pub, Martin was attacked by three youths from behind. Their assault sent him "crashing to the floor", but he managed to defend himself; he says he "hit one in the groin and kicked another one". The youths ran off; Martin staggered to King's College Hospital
, where he was kept in overnight. He reported for work the next morning, but his bosses refused to let him work.
Martin stated that he would "only give up [working] when they put me in a wooden box". He also offered his view on older workers: "Employers should pick people like us; we want to work and it puts money in our pockets and keeps us active". His boss, Charlie Mullins, stated in an interview with a French TV station that they use Buster in all their publicity and managed to increase their business by 36% thanks to his popularity and the media interest.
Buster Martin died on 12 April 2011 at the claimed age of 104.
, Martin joined the The Zimmers
, a band consisting of forty old age pensioner
s. The group was put together by BBC film maker Tim Samuels
for a documentary on the marginalisation of older people in Britain. The Zimmers shot to fame in 2007 with their cover of The Who
's "My Generation". Martin also accepted a position on men's magazine FHM
as an "agony uncle," offering advice to the magazine's readers.
. According to press reports, he walked the 26 mile course in approximately 10 hours. The official London Marathon 2008 Results list shows intermediate results for 5 km, 10 km and 15 km but no finishing time for Buster Martin, who carried the race number 32858 on race day. His four minders - Harmander Singh (32857), Samm Mullins (32856), Anil K Gupta (51611) and Mirmal Singh Lotay (23984) - are still officially listed with a finishing time of 9 hours 59 minutes. If the claims about his age were true, he would have been the oldest recorded marathon participant in the world. The record-holder is Dimitrion Yordanidis
who ran at a verified 98 years of age. However, officials of the Guinness World Records organisation said that they did not consider Martin eligible for the record because he had never provided proof of the date of his birth. Robert Young, an independent senior consultant for gerontology for Guinness World Records stated that his sources had told him that Martin had two birth dates registered with the British NHS: 1 September 1906, and 1 September 1913, which would have made him 94 years old at the time.
London bookmakers William Hill refused to pay out £13,300 in alleged winnings for two bets which had been placed on Buster Martin's marathon efforts and would have benefitted the Rhys Daniels Trust. The bookmakers demand a birth certificate as proof of age, stating that other documents like a passport or a naturalisation certificate are only "proof of nationality" and, in this case, based on "self-certification". The Los Angeles Times
reported on 12 April 2008 that Martin "follows a diligent regimen of beer, cigarettes and red meat".
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's oldest employee, stating that he was born in 1906.
Until his death, Martin worked for Pimlico Plumbers
Pimlico Plumbers
Pimlico Plumbers is a plumbing firm based in London. It is London's largest independent plumbing company. It was established in 1979 by its current Managing Director Charlie Mullins , who left school at 15 with no qualifications and began work as a plumber.It is known for its effective publicity,...
, a well-known plumbing company in southeast London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
as a van cleaner, and notably refused to take a day off on the day he celebrated what he claimed was his 100th birthday. He also received coverage in the media for fending off an attack from a group of youths in 2007; his heroics were cited by the former Liberal Democrat
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
leader Sir Menzies Campbell
Menzies Campbell
Sir Walter Menzies "Ming" Campbell, CBE, QC, MP is a British Liberal Democrat politician and advocate, and a retired sprinter. He is the Member of Parliament for North East Fife, and was the Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2 March 2006 until 15 October 2007.Campbell held the British record...
as "living proof of why people should not be written off once they pass retirement age". Martin stated that he would not retire from working.
Doubts have been raised about all of Martin's historical claims, including his age, which may have been "only" 97 at the time of his death.
Biography
In an interview with The GuardianThe Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper, Martin claimed to have been born "up in the hills of the Basque Country" in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He stated that his mother fell pregnant to a member of the affluent family she served, and he and his mother were smuggled to Britain to avoid the disgrace. His mother was put in a convent and he was placed in an orphanage near Bodmin
Bodmin
Bodmin is a civil parish and major town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated in the centre of the county southwest of Bodmin Moor.The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character...
in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, run by the Sisters of Mercy
Sisters of Mercy
The Religious Order of the Sisters of Mercy is an order of Catholic women founded by Catherine McAuley in Dublin, Ireland, in 1831. , the order has about 10,000 members worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations....
, when he was three months old. Martin says that he picked up his nickname "Buster" at age three for "whacking a priest on the nose". He travelled to London, and found work running errands for stallholders in the Brixton
Brixton
Brixton is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in south London, England. It is south south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
market, the beginning of nearly 90 years of work.
He reputedly met his future wife, Iriana, a native of Tonbridge
Tonbridge
Tonbridge is a market town in the English county of Kent, with a population of 30,340 in 2007. It is located on the River Medway, approximately 4 miles north of Tunbridge Wells, 12 miles south west of Maidstone and 29 miles south east of London...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, at the age of 13 (she was 12). They married a year later in France. Martin stated: "I got married in 1920 and had to go over to France as I couldn't get married here due to my legal status." It has to be noted, however, that the legal age for contracting marriage in France at the time was 18 for a boy and 15 for a girl, with the consent of their parents, or 21 without the consent of father and mother. The couple stayed together for 35 years until Iriana reportedly died in 1955, although no death certificate has been uncovered. They reportedly had 17 children, born between 1921 and 1934: "twins, triplets, singletons - all sorts", among them Roberto, Rodrigues, and triplets named Georgina, Georgia and Giselle, but again no record of their births could be found. Martin claimed that they all moved abroad.
He claimed to have left the Brixton
Brixton
Brixton is a district in the London Borough of Lambeth in south London, England. It is south south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London....
market aged 14, and joined the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
, where he became a physical training instructor. He served in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, leaving the Armed Forces in 1955 after reaching the rank of regimental sergeant major
Regimental Sergeant Major
Regimental Sergeant Major is an appointment held by warrant officers class 1 in the British Army, the British Royal Marines and in the armies of many Commonwealth nations, including Australia and New Zealand; and by chief warrant officers in the Canadian Forces...
. After "taking up a wide range of trades", he returned to the market, where he worked until he was 97. After complaining of boredom, he resumed work, starting at Pimlico Plumbers in London on a twenty-hour week (three days a week) three months before his claimed 100th birthday.
On Martin's claimed centenary, his employer suggested that he take the day off to celebrate. However, he turned up for work. His colleagues threw him a surprise party at the company's headquarters and organized a tour of Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...
's Stamford Bridge
Stamford Bridge (stadium)
Stamford Bridge is a football stadium in Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, West London, and is the home of Chelsea Football Club. The stadium is located within the Moore Park Estate also known as Walham Green and is often referred to as simply The Bridge...
ground. Until 2006, Martin claimed never to have taken a day off for sickness in his ninety years of work, until an ingrown toenail forced him to take a few months' leave of work.
On 22 February 2007, while walking to a bus stop from a local pub, Martin was attacked by three youths from behind. Their assault sent him "crashing to the floor", but he managed to defend himself; he says he "hit one in the groin and kicked another one". The youths ran off; Martin staggered to King's College Hospital
King's College Hospital
King's College Hospital is an acute care facility in the London Borough of Lambeth, referred to locally and by staff simply as "King's" or abbreviated internally to "KCH"...
, where he was kept in overnight. He reported for work the next morning, but his bosses refused to let him work.
Martin stated that he would "only give up [working] when they put me in a wooden box". He also offered his view on older workers: "Employers should pick people like us; we want to work and it puts money in our pockets and keeps us active". His boss, Charlie Mullins, stated in an interview with a French TV station that they use Buster in all their publicity and managed to increase their business by 36% thanks to his popularity and the media interest.
Buster Martin died on 12 April 2011 at the claimed age of 104.
The Zimmers
Through the intervention of celebrity publicist Max CliffordMax Clifford
Maxwell Frank Clifford is an English publicist, considered the highest-profile and best-known publicist in the United Kingdom...
, Martin joined the The Zimmers
The Zimmers
The Zimmers are a British band, thought to have the oldest members of any band in the world. The oldest member claims to have been born in 1906, although some sources indicate he was born in 1913. The former lead singer Alf Carretta died on 29 June 2010, aged 93...
, a band consisting of forty old age pensioner
Pensioner
In common parlance, a pensioner is a person who has retired, and now collects a pension. This is a term typically used in the United Kingdom and Australia where someone of pensionable age may also be referred to as an 'old age pensioner', or OAP. In the United States, the term retiree is more...
s. The group was put together by BBC film maker Tim Samuels
Tim Samuels
Tim Samuels is an award-winning British documentary filmmaker and broadcaster. His work is characterised by approaching serious topics in innovative and subversive ways to produce hard-hitting documentaries. Samuels formed older people's rock group The Zimmers for a BBC documentary and is a...
for a documentary on the marginalisation of older people in Britain. The Zimmers shot to fame in 2007 with their cover of The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...
's "My Generation". Martin also accepted a position on men's magazine FHM
FHM
FHM, originally published as For Him Magazine, is an international monthly men's lifestyle magazine.- History :The magazine began publication in 1985 in the United Kingdom under the name For Him and changed its title to FHM in 1994 when Emap Consumer Media bought the magazine, although the full For...
as an "agony uncle," offering advice to the magazine's readers.
London Marathon 2008
After walking the 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) distance of the Great Capital Run in 2 hours 22 minutes and the Roding Valley Half Marathon in 5 hours 13 minutes, Martin was entered for the 2008 London MarathonLondon Marathon
The London Marathon is one of the biggest running events in the world, and one of the five top world marathons that make up the World Marathon Majors competition, which has a $1 million prize purse. It has been held each spring in London since 1981. The race is currently sponsored by Virgin Money,...
. According to press reports, he walked the 26 mile course in approximately 10 hours. The official London Marathon 2008 Results list shows intermediate results for 5 km, 10 km and 15 km but no finishing time for Buster Martin, who carried the race number 32858 on race day. His four minders - Harmander Singh (32857), Samm Mullins (32856), Anil K Gupta (51611) and Mirmal Singh Lotay (23984) - are still officially listed with a finishing time of 9 hours 59 minutes. If the claims about his age were true, he would have been the oldest recorded marathon participant in the world. The record-holder is Dimitrion Yordanidis
Dimitrion Yordanidis
Dimitrion Yordanidis was a Greek runner, who, according to Guinness World Records, completed the 26-mile marathon course from Marathon, Greece to Athens on October 10, 1976 in 7 hours 33 minutes, aged 98...
who ran at a verified 98 years of age. However, officials of the Guinness World Records organisation said that they did not consider Martin eligible for the record because he had never provided proof of the date of his birth. Robert Young, an independent senior consultant for gerontology for Guinness World Records stated that his sources had told him that Martin had two birth dates registered with the British NHS: 1 September 1906, and 1 September 1913, which would have made him 94 years old at the time.
London bookmakers William Hill refused to pay out £13,300 in alleged winnings for two bets which had been placed on Buster Martin's marathon efforts and would have benefitted the Rhys Daniels Trust. The bookmakers demand a birth certificate as proof of age, stating that other documents like a passport or a naturalisation certificate are only "proof of nationality" and, in this case, based on "self-certification". The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
reported on 12 April 2008 that Martin "follows a diligent regimen of beer, cigarettes and red meat".