A CENTENARIAN has reminisced about his long life in Rugby as the town’s first citizen joined celebrations for his 102nd birthday.
Lifelong Rugbeian George Benson shared birthday cake with Mayor Bill Lewis and his wife Sue.
They were visiting The Elms Care Home in Clifton to mark National Care Home Open Day – which happened to fall on the day before George turned 102.
George was born in Dale Street in 1917.
He joined Wesleyan School in Chapel Street, and then moved on to St Matthew’s School.
George started working straight after finishing school at the age of 14, starting as a mail-sorter at British Thomson-Houston before moving on to work in the Lamp Factory. He then joined Shell Mex as a drivers mate.
He met his sweetheart Lilian when she was 16 and he was 17. They married four years later and enjoyed a happy 59 years together until she sadly passed away.
When he was 18 George took his driving test in Yorkshire and worked as tanker driver for Shell Mex and BP. He moved on to Coventry Radiator as a metal polisher.
He joined the Territorial Army and was called up to serve in the Second World War, joining the Yorkshire and Lancashire regiment as a tanker driver delivering petrol to the air fields.
Now a resident at The Elms, George remembers all the way back to his days at Wesleyan School, where he and his good friend Harold played conkers and marbles.
He said: “One day we went to the shop in Dale Street before school and bought little cashew sweets. In the afternoon during science class, Harold and I started eating the sweets and were caught by Mr Robinson, the head teacher. Mr Robinson shared the sweets with all the class!
“I remember that the old Marks and Spencer building in town was the Town Hall when I was growing up.
“I enjoyed going to the Regal Cinema in Railway Terrace and the Scala in Henry Street. I used to watch cowboy movies and loved John Wayne. I also remember there was an ice rink opposite the Scala.
“A bugler from the army used to play music in the town center, and I used to listed to him. I had never heard anything like it in my life!”
George says the secret ingredient to his long life is no alcohol and plenty of cups of tea.
His advice? “Don’t worry about things, and take life as it comes. Be happy in life.”
