London: As a special concession, "Buster" Martin was given a day off work yesterday. It was, after all, his 100th birthday.
Britain's oldest worker who says that if he did not work he would become "the most miserable sod you have come across" had planned to mark the occasion by having a pint at his local pub on his way home. But Pimlico Plumbers, the London company that employs him as a mechanic and valeter, has organised a VIP trip to Chelsea's Stamford Bridge ground where he will pick up a team shirt with "Buster 100" on the back.
Martin, a widower with 17 children and 70 or so grandchildren and great grandchildren (he admits that he lost count years ago), has tried retirement but did not like it. He stopped working on market stalls in London when he was 97, but started looking for a new job after three months. He now works between three and four hours a day and has no intention of stopping. "Boredom is a big killer of men," Martin said.
He lives in sheltered accommodation in Lambeth, south London, with a television being his one concession to the electronic age. "I have never owned a phone they are a nuisance," he said. "You can be sitting peacefully indoors and they start ringing. I hate them."
The centenarian, who grew up in an orphanage and first married when he was 14, joined the Grenadier Guards and served in Second World War before switching to the Navy.
