Great sport George hits 100!
Reporter: Marina Berry
Date published: 16 August 2011
George Longster: 100 today
IT’S 100 not out for keen sportsman George Longster, who today celebrates his centenary.
The birthday boy was born in Yorkshire on August 16, 1911 and moved to Delph with his wife, Minnie, 50 years ago when the couple fell for the beauty of Saddleworth as regular visitors.
The couple immersed themselves in village life: many of their friends are expected at their home in St Thomas’s Court, Church Street today to help George mark his 100th birthday.
One of George’s clearest memories is of his years as a prisoner of war in an Austrian Stalag, where he helped to build a chapel.
The member of the Royal Corps of Signals was captured in the Libyan desert in June 1942 while on a long-range reconnaisance mission. He spent the next three years as a prisoner and kept an account in a journal.
The diary has survived the decades, and its pages have now been posted on George’s own website www.longster.net by his son Richard for all to see.
A proud Richard writes: “It shows the ingenuity, resilience and stubborn resistance of the allied troops and their “never say die” attitude which brought them through one of the most difficult periods of modern history.”
Outside the war, George was a brickie and joiner, and met his wife — now 91 — after the war.
The couple have two children, and when they moved to Delph, George worked for Wimpey Construction, where he was head of speculative building for the North East.
He was a keen golfer, and has been a member of Saddleworth Golf Club since moving to Delph, spending a year as president in the 1970s.
He is still proud of his sporting triumphs: “I played amateur football for every club in Yorkshire,” he says.
George has four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, who will all be raising a glass to the oldest surviving member of their family.
