Pensioner is still getting up at 6am to deliver newspapers aged 80 after getting his Covid jab 

Is this Britain’s oldest paperboy? Pensioner is still getting up at 6am to deliver newspapers aged 80 after getting his Covid jab

  • George Bailey is still doing his daily paper rounds at his local village in Kent 
  • He’s had the job for the last decade despite ‘keep saying I’m going to pack it in’
  • Two-and-a-half mile trip takes him about an hour and sees him get up around 6
  • Do you know any old paperboys? Contact [email protected] 

One of Britain’s oldest paperboys has let neither lockdown nor advancing years get in the way of bringing news to his community.

Fighting fit after celebrating his 80th birthday at the weekend and getting his coronavirus jab, George Bailey was back out on his bike on Tuesday despite the chilly winter morning.

The octogenarian woke up with night still shrouding his village in Kent and headed out, as he does each day, to collect the papers.

Fighting fit after celebrating his 80th birthday at the weekend and getting his coronavirus jab, George Bailey was back out on his bike on Tuesday despite the chilly winter morning

‘I keep saying every Christmas I’m going to pack it in,’ he said.

But as each year rolls around the great-grandfather keeps on cycling round the village of Headcorn distributing the various national and local newspapers.

The shop he delivers for, Oldfields newsagents on High Street, finds it hard to recruit paperboys nowadays so Mr Bailey continues his daily round as he has for the last decade.

The two-and-a-half mile trip he does every day takes him about an hour and sees him get up around 6am.

‘I enjoy the summer when you can wear shorts. If it’s raining you get absolutely swamped with water.

‘I didn’t enjoy the last few days when I had to to come home and change my clothes.’

When he was 11 years old Mr Bailey picked up a paper round like many other boys his age.

But his return to the route as a pensioner puts him in rarefied company as certainly one of the oldest paperboys in the country. 

The shop he delivers for, Oldfields newsagents on High Street, finds it hard to recruit paperboys nowadays so Mr Bailey continues his daily round as he has for the last decade.

The shop he delivers for, Oldfields newsagents on High Street, finds it hard to recruit paperboys nowadays so Mr Bailey continues his daily round as he has for the last decade.

The octogenarian woke up with night still shrouding his village in Kent and headed out, as he does each day, to collect the papers

The octogenarian woke up with night still shrouding his village in Kent and headed out, as he does each day, to collect the papers

The octogenarian woke up with night still shrouding his village in Kent and headed out, as he does each day, to collect the papers

Mr Bailey’s varied life has seen him work as a stockbroker, at manufacturer Unigate for nearly 10 years and on a local golf course.

On Sunday he celebrated his 80th birthday, an occasion made more special by getting the coronavirus jab just days before.

But Mr Bailey has been nipped to the title of Britain’s oldest paper boy by several other spiritedly pensioners.  

Alan Gillard, 84, revealed in April that he had been delivering newspapers for the past 24 years after taking over from his son.

Other honourable mentions include Michael Trigwell, from Sussex, who in 2018 was doing his rounds aged 79, and 78-year-old Ronnie Canvin, from Willington, in County Durham. 

Meanwhile, war veteran Walter Sharp was widely known as the ‘world’s oldest paperboy’ before he died aged 106 earlier this year.