07-05-2025
I'm Britain's oldest shopkeeper but despite being 100 years old I don't think I'll ever retire - and here's why
In his youth, he collected manure to sell to allotment owners; later, he went on to work as a tanner and an HGV driver, before supporting the British war effort in India and Burma.
But all that was in another lifetime, before Arthur Ferguson really hit his stride.
Mr Ferguson, who celebrated his 100th birthday two months ago, is Britain's oldest shopkeeper.
He opened a bakery in the Cumbrian coastal town of Millom in 1950 and has not looked back since, a living embodiment of the principle that all good businesses must adapt to survive.
Before long, the bakery became a haberdashery, and now the quadruple-fronted store on Wellington Street offers an array of goods and services, from school uniforms and household goods to dry cleaning and made-to-measure blinds.
The shop has become a bastion of the local community and, having made it his life, the father of two is not about to step about away anytime soon. In fact, Mr Ferguson does not think he will ever retire.
'I quite enjoy it, it's good,' he said. 'I like that we sell a range of stuff - ladies', gents' and children's clothes, school wear, bedding, clocks.
'I've worked in retail all my life, apart from army service. I don't think I'll retire.'
That will come as welcome news not only to staff, who have described him as a man who 'likes life and likes to see people', but also to customers in a town where everybody knows the world war two veteran.
David Ferguson, who at 62 is the younger of his two sons - the other is Mark, 70 - is not so sure his father could relinquish the reins even he wanted to.
'If I took over the shop tomorrow, then he would still come down,' said David. 'He's the type of guy who would come to make sure that everything is OK and running properly.
'He's been hands-on forever. I have no intention of slowing him down, he likes going.'
Born in Blackley, Manchester on March 8, 1925, Mr Ferguson had retail in his blood from the very beginning.
As a child, he lived with his mother above the corner shop she ran in Millom - his father having died when he was young - and contributed to the business from an early age, when he would cut firewood kindling to sell in the store.
By the age of 16, he was working as a truck driver for a local tannery, untroubled by the fact that he could not drive.
'In those days, it was enough for him to be sent to the post office to buy an HGV licence, with no test necessary,' David recently told The Mail in South Cumbria.
'On his first trip, he was sent to Leicester with leather for army boots.
'There were no road signs, no sat nav and when he stopped to ask directions, the public assumed him to be a German spy and sent him the wrong way.
'Millom to Leicester is about three and half hours today - and he was gone about a week.'
Once he resurfaced, Mr Ferguson underwent infantry training in Ireland, the Cumbrian village of Rampside and Durham before joining the first Lincolnshire regiment.
Following a postwar sojourn in Singapore, he returned to Millom and married his late wife Cicely Simm, with whom he built the business that would become his lifeblood.
Mr Ferguson retained a deep bond with the men he fought alongside, as well as an enduring appetite for travel.
'He used to drive with his car and his caravan all the way to Venice,' added David. 'He's got friends there from those days.
'He would spend three weeks there on a holiday and then would drive back again. He's been on cruises and travelled to the Far East.'
'He also likes to play the organ and used to sell them at one point.'
Mr Ferguson continues to work six days a week and regularly visits Manchester to obtain new stock for his shop. Retirement is not on the agenda.
