103 YEARS OLD
SAILOR AND WATERSIDER
'DEATH OCCURS TO-DAY
A centenarian, an old sailor, and waterside worker, George Ryan, died this morning at the age of 103 at St. Joseph's Home for Incurables, Buckle street.
Interviewed by a "Post" reporter, the sistcr-in-charge "of the home, said that Ryan was born in Algoa Bay, South:.Africa, iris mother being a Boer and his - father .an Irishman. When ' quite young, he went to sea as a cabin boy, and spent most of his life on the sea. He was shipwrecked several times, and was once cast away on a desert isldand for six weeks or more, having to live as best he could on bird's eggs and shell-fish. He remembered being in London when Queen Victoria was crowned.
The late Mr. Ryan had been in New Zealand off and on for 57 years, and had been working on the Wellington waterfront for some time before he first went to St. Joseph's Home, a little over three years ago. '' His only disease was 'Anno Domini' —old age, that is.to say," remarked the Sister, "and lie was quite hale and hearty, for such an old man, up to about a fortnight ago. He then took to his bod. He could not understand how it was that ho could not get about any more. IPs lags failed him, he said. He was a dear old man, a real good old man. I think most of the waterside workers in Wellington know of him."
103 YEARS OLD
Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 127, 25 November 1929, Page 10
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