Donald Trelford, the former Observer editor, is laying claim to being “Britain’s oldest new father”. He was 76 and six months old when his latest progeny, Poppy, was born in May 2014.
In an article boasting of his new title, published in the latest issue of The Oldie magazine, he writes:
“I would prefer to to be remembered as a campaigning newspaper editor, or a dashing pilot, or (in my dreams) scoring a century at Lord’s or a try at Twickenham - perhaps most of all as a loving father - than for the longevity of my reproductive organs. But there it is and there we are, as my old friend Alan Watkins used to say”.
Trelford was a mere 73 when his previous child, Ben, was born four years ago. Both children are the offspring of his 2001 marriage to Claire, a former TV presenter.
Prior to that, he had three children with his first wife and a fourth with his second wife. His eldest daughter is 50! And he also has six grandchildren.
The Trelfords live in Majorca and his wheeling of Poppy in her pram through the streets generates warm greetings from the locals. “I have been asked only twice if I am a grandfather,” he writes, “both times by British tourists”.
Although he concedes that there are times when he and Claire “resent being deprived of the freedom to sit quietly with a newspaper or book” it is balanced by “the joy of seeing the world afresh through the eyes of a child”.
But what about the fact that he is unlikely to see them grow into teenagers? “I have to face the fact that they may hardly remember me at all in later life,” he writes.
“But to say we shouldn’t have had Ben and Poppy for those reasons is a big call to make about other people’s lives”. And he concludes:
“I hope that they both get as much fun out of life as their old man”.
*For the record, Trelford was born on 9 November 1937 and he edited the Observer from 1975 to 1993.