Scotland's oldest paper boy

Story By Claire Elliot

HE STARTED delivering papers as a favour - but David Davidson enjoyed it so much he is still doing the rounds at the grand old age of 80.

The sprightly pensioner is now thought to be the oldest paper boy in Scotland - having only taken up the role 12 years ago.

His late wife Sheila worked at the village post office and when the paper boys failed to turn up one morning he volunteered his help.

Since then, however, Mr Davidson has delivered around 100,000 papers to his neighbours in Maud, Aberdeenshire.

Come rain or shine, he rises early to pick up the papers from the post office at 6.30am every weekday.

It takes the grandfather-of-five around half an hour to complete the rounds to the 31 households.

And, despite celebrating his 80th birthday recently, he said he has no plans to stop any time soon.

Mr Davidson, who has lived in the village since 1959, said: “It’s fine just to get up in the morning.

“My wife worked in the post office and when the boys didn’t turn up one morning I just bundled the papers into the van and that was it.

“I pick up the papers at the post office at 6.30am and then I just pop round the village.

“A lot of people my age wouldn’t be fit enough but I’m lucky. I like to keep active and I’ll keep delivering the papers for as long as I’m able.”

And there is no stopping Mr Davidson, a retired agricultural engineer, who also cuts the grass at the nearby Ebrie Lodge Pet Hotel every Tuesday and Thursday after his rounds.

Mr Davidson grew up in a small farming community at Newmachar, Aberdeenshire, and on leaving school at 14 he worked at a local smithy.

Two years later he joined an agricultural engineering firm where he spent the next 49 years, only taking on the role as paper boy three years after he retired. He now earns £25 a week delivering the papers.

Maud resident Mary Gibson, 74, who until last Christmas also helped deliver the morning papers around the village, today said Mr Davidson was very popular in the community.

She said: "I've known Davie for 31 years and he's a great lad. He's very popular in the village and very well liked. I used to deliver papers to a different part of the village but I always met him when we went for the papers. I've had a good many a laugh with him. He's comical and he keeps you going.

“And for his age he's very agile. He's always up early and raking about. There's nobody like him,” she added

Ted Ingram was officially named the world's oldest paper boy at the age of 90 last year after delivering papers in the village of Winterborne Monkton, near Dorchester, Dorset, for 68 years.