Peter Oakley: a senior citizen who made his mark

Today the National Rust editorial team raises a salute to Peter Oakley, an 86 year-old pensioner, who died recently and whose obituary appears on the website of the Daily Telegraph.

Mr Oakley’s primary claim to fame is that, demonstrating the lasting resourcefulness of senior citizens in this great country of ours, he took to YouTube in 2006 in order to post a series of video-blogs about both his perspectives upon modern life and a range of memories from his past. This, apparently, became something of an internet sensation.

I use the world ‘apparently’ because, lacking the technological ability to use a video recorder, let alone post the results on-line myself, I have no personal knowledge of Mr Oakley’s oeuvre and indeed had never heard of him until today.

Nevertheless, let that not prevent us paying tribute to a gentleman of advanced years who managed to get noticed by the great British media for something other than just being a curmudgeonly drain upon the national public finances.

See here for Mr Oakley’s obituary in the DAILY TELEGRAPH