Buster Martin
| Buster Martin | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1 September 1906 (disputed) France |
| Died | 12 April 2011 (aged 104) (disputed) London, England |
| Occupation | Van cleaner, Columnist (FHM) |
| Known for | Claimed oldest employee in the United Kingdom |
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 in truth been 97 at the time of his death.
In an interview with The Guardian 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). He claimed that they were 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.
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