BRIDEGROOM AT 97 YEARS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 449, 15 December 1930, Page 8

BRIDEGROOM AT 97 YEARS

WIFE NEABING ALLOTTED SPAN ENGLAND’S OLDEST CORONER Mr John Graham, of Durham, the oldest coroner jn England, who was 97 years of age last July, was married on. October 29 at All Saints’ Church, Upper Norwood, London His bride, Miss E. Ashton, of Durham, is nearly 70 years of age. The ceremony had been kept a close secret, and even Mr Graham’s most intimate friends were unaware of it. Only two witnesses were present, apart from the bridal couple and the vicar. The bridegroom is not only the oldest coroner in England, but is believed to be the oldest solicitor. He was the last coroner to be elected by a public vote 57 years ago. He has been married before. Mr Graham lives near Durham in a house which he has occupied for 60 years. He is still actually coroner, although he does not attend inquests, but carries out most of the other duties connected with the office. He has held inquests on 31 persons hanged in Durham Gaol, and has long advocated abolition of the death penalty. He suggested three years ago the alternative of penal servitude without hope of remission. It was largely because of Mr Graham’s insistence on the need for fireguards in homes where there are children that legislation to enforce this was introduced in to the Children’s Act. Mr Graham, on one occasion, publicly praised the part played by the Daily Express in bringing about the regulation of the ale of flannelette, after a scries of child tragedies caused by flannelette clothing catching fire.