Britain’s Oldest Man Attributes His Longevity To An Indian Magic Potion

The Daily Mail on the mysteries of long life:

Britain’s oldest man – who turns 110 tomorrow – says his longevity isn’t entirely down to his strict vegetarian diet or his favourite [drink], gin. The Reverend Reg Dean instead attributes it to a ‘mysterious brown-looking’ elixir of life given to him by a doctor when he was an army chaplain in India.

‘He said to me, “I have concocted a drink that will make you live for ever”, or something like that, and would I like to take it?’ he recalled yesterday. ‘Well I’m very naive, I can’t say no, so I drank it and here I am.’

TThe former teacher and church minister was born on November 4, 1902, in Tunstall, Staffordshire. He was ordained in the 1920s and later volunteered as an army chaplain in Burma and India during the Second World War.