LIGHTNING BARBER

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 190, 8 May 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

LIGHTNING BARBER

Shaves Twelve Men In Under Four Minutes

At the age of eight Bob Hardie stood on a stool and shaved his father’s customers. Now, at 71. he has retired from the position of tiraflic manager to the Romney, Hythe. and Dymchureh Railway, smallest railway in the world. He claims that he is still unbeaten world’s champion of quick-shaving. Twelve men in three minutes 40 seconds was his record, an average of 18 1-3 seconds per face. A million and a half passengers in 11 years on the world’s smallest railway is his latest record. In between he has won waltzing prizes and conducted tours to Sweden, Russia and Germany. “I was one of seven brothers,” be tiaid to a “Sunday Express’ representa-

the, “all barbers. My father was a bartier and taught us all. Then when we were old enough we each had ■< shop of our own. "I soon had two shops. When I was 22 I had a shaving match with Tom Ross, at the Kensington Aquarium and won hands down. “Twelve men in three minutes -th seconds, I shaved. “Really my elder brother was quicker, but he could not work tiefore crowds. “Well, after that match Harry Day put me on at the old Bedford Music Hall and the Cambridge Music Hall at £5O a week, doing fast shaving with a pen-knife aud with a carvingknife.”