LongeviQuest recently reviewed the case of Mary Bidwell of the United States – a previously validated supercentenarian who held the title of the oldest individual from the U.S. state of Connecticut passing on 25 April 1996, at the age of 114.
Initially, Guinness World Records validated Bidwell’s birthdate as 19 May 1881. However, after a thorough review of documents discovered by Jimmy Lindberg, the Global Validation Commission concluded that she was actually born ten days earlier, on 9 May 1881. This was the date that Bidwell had always claimed as her birthdate. Therefore, her final age was not 114 years, 342 days, but 114 years, 352 days.
To this day she still holds the record for being the oldest individual from the U.S. state of Connecticut, both in terms of birthplace and deathplace.
For more information, please view Bidwell’s Directory Profile here.
LongeviQuest is pleased to announce the age validation of George Ives of Canada at age 111. She was born in Brighton, East Sussex, England, United Kingdom on 17 November 1881. He worked in his father’s workshop in Bristol until 1899. When he learned of Britain’s defeat at Colenso, South Africa, during the Second Boer War, he enlisted in the Imperial Yeomanry. He stayed in South Africa until the war’s end in 1902. Ives was the last surviving veteran of the Second Boer War (1899 – 1902).
Ives at the age of 111 (Source: Gerontology Wiki)
After the war, Ives emigrated to Canada with his father and bought 160 acres of land for 10 dollars. He got married in 1910 and had six children with her wife. His wife did not like living on the prairies, so they moved to White Rock, British Columbia. They lived in the same house for 65 years. Ives was a farmer in White Rock until 1941. He then changed careers and worked in a shipyard constructing wooden scows until he retired in 1956. He lived independently until 1984 when he moved into a retirement home in Aldergrove, British Columbia.
Ives with Princess Diana at the age of 111 (Source: The 110 Club)
In November 1992, aged 111, Ives flew back to England to attend the Albert Hall ceremony for Remembrance Day and met several British dignitaries. He died in Aldergrove on 12 April 1993 at the age of 111 years, 146 days. Ives is believed to have become the oldest living man in Canada following the death of 109-year-old Philo McCandless on 22 June 1990. Two years later, he broke Eli Lindsay’s record as the oldest man ever to reside in Canada.
Ives was the first known man in Canada’s history to reach the age of 111. Upon his death, Canada’s oldest living man became Chester Pushie, then aged 108. He was the oldest British-born veteran of any war until 2007 when Henry Allingham surpassed his age.
LongeviQuest congratulates George Ives’s family on her posthumous recognition.
For more information, please view Ives’s Directory Profile here.
