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The world’s oldest Bristolian has turned 107 today, after a lifetime where he has seen the city transformed, as well as two world wars and five Kings and Queens of England. Today, October 14, is Leonard John Howes’ birthday.
Like many men his age, though there are not quite so many of them, Mr Howes served in World War Two, and in the Royal Corp of Signals he worked as an electrical engineer, after starting out working for the Post Office a couple of years before the war. He worked at a military station in Wiltshire, Box Hill, and repaired bomb damage to telephone cables in Bristol during the Blitz.
He also worked in the blossoming technology of signals intelligence for a time at the Forest Moor Y intercept station in Harrogate. After the war, he continued to work in this growing field, spending much of the rest of his like working for British Telecom before retiring in 1981.
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Mr Howes, Britain’s 12th oldest man, is a Bristol man through and through, having lived on Dalrymple Road in St Pauls, Gladstone Street and Stanley Street in Bedminster, and Smyth Road in Ashton Gate, but retired for a spot of sea air in Newquay in 2013, when he was a sprightly 97-year-old.
But, despite the distance, he remains a steadfast and lifelong supporter of Bristol City, seeing games at Smyth Road throughout the club’s long history. Though he was too young to remember it at the time, toddler Leonard is one of the only people alive when Bristol City last made it to an FA Cup final, in 1909.
Mr Howes’ grandson Nick Howes, said: “Bristols oldest living man is 107 today, happy birthday dear Grandad.”
