A dedicated pensioner has been named as Britain’s oldest supermarket worker – aged 91.
Hardy Tom Brogan spends three mornings a week pushing trolleys at Asda and he has no intention of retiring.
The great-granddad packed in work almost three decades ago at the age of 63 but he only managed 14 months of retirement before he was lured back to employment.
He picked up a car parking attendant job at the Asda store in Wigan, Gtr Manc., over 20 years ago.
Tom, a father-of-two, said: “I’m quite happy. I know everybody and everybody knows me.
“I would seize up if I retired. I definitely wouldn’t start watching black and white films.
“I think I’ll know when the time is right but it’s definitely not now. My health has been ok up until this week – I think it’s the first time I’ve taken sick leave in 20 years.
“It gets me out of the four walls of my house – I’d be bored stiff otherwise.
“It’s not about the money for me, I get to exercise by working and it provides me with company other than my family.”
Tom, who will be 92 in August, has been working his socks off since leaving school in 1939.
He was called up for national service in 1943 at the start of the second front of WWII.
He spent four years in the Royal Artillery before choosing a slower pace of life as a bus driver and then owning his own grocery store in Wales.
When he and his wife Joan shut up shop they moved back to Wigan and his 14-month retirement spell began.
But a combination of itchy feet and the sad death of Joan in 2008 has kept his work ethic strong.
Tom, who also sings in an all-male choir and still whizzes round in his Ford Fiesta, added: “I think I would have retired a long time ago if Joan was still here.
“She would be absolutely delighted that I was still working.”
Sandra Barlow, 53, section leader at the Wigan Asda store said: “Tom’s absolutely brilliant and as fit as a fiddle. You wouldn’t believe how old he is.
“He’s dead helpful and lifts all the heavy gear into customer’s cars with a spring in his step come rain or shine.
“I don’t think he’ll ever give up his job – it would have to be something dramatic for him to give it up.
“It’s something for him to get up for and he really enjoys it, everybody knows him and he never complains.
“He’s a lovely, lovely man.”
