Reg Buttress dead at 94 – Britain’s ‘oldest supermarket worker’ dies weeks after finally retiring

A "MUCH loved colleague" believed to be Britain's oldest supermarket worker has died weeks after he retired aged 94.

Former Sainsbury's employee Reg Buttress was a well-known face at the Cwmbran branch in south Wales since he started working there in 1981.

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Mr Buttress first retired when he turned 65 in 1987, but returned to work six weeks later after feeling "lost without a job".

He continued working at the store for the next three decades, before finally retiring just two months ago in September.

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Mr Buttress last publicly spoke of his love for the job in August, saying he still looked forward to hearing customers' stories.

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The former coal mine worker took the job at Sainsbury's at 59, and held a number of roles including stacking shelves, pricing items and helping customers.

He was known for wearing fancy dress for charity and at Halloween and Christmas, and donned a bow tie and shirt for his final retirement party on September 22.

Mr Buttress' working life spanned eight decades, staring with a job in a coal mine in Caerphilly, south Wales at just 13.

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After being laid off, he took a job in a factory in Birmingham, earning 14 shillings a week.

His dad bought him a bike, which he would regularly use to cycle the two-day, 200-mile round trip to visit his home in Pontypool, stopping to sleep in a hedge on the way.

He later returned to south Wales when his accommodation was bombed in the war, and went on to work as a steam engine driver, and in a Nylon factory, before joining Sainsbury's.

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