Britain's oldest shop worker dies two months after retirement

One of Britain's oldest shop workers aged has died two months after retiring at the age of 94.

Reg Buttress started working at the Sainsbury's supermarket in Cwmbran, Torfaen, back in 1981 aged 59, according to the BBC.

The former coal miner and steam engine driver retired in September after celebrating his 94th birthday.

Buttress retired once before at the age of 65, however, after a few weeks he asked to return owing to boredom. "I felt lost without a job...and I had to go back," he said.

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He started working for Sainsbury's in his hometown of Cwmbran back in 1981 after being made redundant.


"It's a marvellous shop," he said, adding that " I love meeting all the different people."

Buttress had held a number of jobs at the supermarket, from collecting trolleys and stacking shelves, to individually pricing items and greeting customers.

He started his working life at 13 at Hafodyrynys colliery, in Caerphilly county, and when he got laid off he went to an unemployment office which told him there were no local jobs.

He then took a factory job in Birmingham, earning 14 shillings a week.

He found work as a steam engine driver on the railways in Pontypool before the Beeching cuts, and later took a job at a Nylon factory before joining Sainsbury's.

Buttress was married for 65 years, before his wife died two years ago.