Bob Weighton

BIOGRAPHY

Weighton was born in Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorkshire, England, UK on 29 March 1908. He was the fourth of seven children born to Scotsman Arthur Weighton and his wife Eliza Pitts. His brother, Arthur Jr., lived to be 95. He said that his earliest memory was contracting mumps at the age of five. He also recalled watching fires caused by Zeppelin raids from his bedroom window during the First World War.

Weighton’s father paid an extra £3 a term so he could stay at school until he was 16, which enabled him to take up a marine engineering apprenticeship. After qualifying, Weighton struggled to find a job, so decided to work abroad as a teacher. He moved to Taiwan in 1933 to teach at a missionary school, but first had to spend two years in Japan learning the language.

In 1937, Weighton married his wife, Agnes, a teacher he had known since they studied together in England. After marrying in Hong Kong, they returned to Taiwan, where their first child, David, was born. The family decided to return to England in 1939, but were diverted to Toronto, Canada, due to the onset of the Second World War. While in Canada, the couple had two more children: Peter, and Dorothy.

Weighton later moved with his family to the United States, where he worked in a factory that made aeroplanes for Britain to help them fight the war. His knowledge of Japanese meant that he went on to work for the British Political Warfare Mission, and helped to decipher enemy messages during America’s battle with Japan.

In 1946, Weighton returned to England with his family, where he met his in-laws for the first time. He took up a teaching position at City University, London, and spent the rest of his working life as a lecturer in marine engineering.

After retiring, Weighton and his wife moved to Alton, Hampshire, England in 1973. Around 1990, he had to undergo an operation to remove a growth on his stomach. Agnes died in 1995, and their son, Peter, died in 2014.

RECOGNITION

Weighton became the oldest living man in England, following the death of John Mansfield on 27 November 2016. At the same time, he also became the joint-oldest living man in the whole of the United Kingdom, along with Alf Smith of Perth, Scotland. Weighton held this title on his own after Smith’s death on 4 August 2019.

Following the death of 111-year-old Hilda Clulow on 24 December 2019, Weighton became the oldest living person in the United Kingdom, a title he shared jointly with Joan Hocquard of Poole, England. He was the first man to hold this title since James Harrow in 1976.

Weighton is currently the second-oldest man ever from England, behind Henry Allingham, and the third-oldest man ever from the United Kingdom, behind Allingham, and John Evans of Wales.

Weighton was believed to have become the oldest living man in Europe following the death of 114-year-old Gustav Gerneth of Germany on 21 October 2019, although Gerneth’s age remains unvalidated as of March 2023.