I love my work so much I’m still clocking on after 80 YEARS – fuelled by two bowls of porridge a day

A MAN believed to be the world’s longest-serving employee is still clocking on after almost 80 years in his job.

John Burns, 93, claims his relentless work ethic is fuelled by two hearty bowls of porridge a day.

When he started work at his Edinburgh law firm in 1936, Edward VIII had just abdicated the throne to marry Wallis Simpson, while Billy Butlin opened his first holiday park at Skegness.

John started work straight from school at the age of 14, after passing a maths-based aptitude test.

Back then he earned 15 shillings a week but half of it went on his training.

During his long service with TC Young Wilson Terris, he has held a variety of roles including office messenger, cashier and now legal messenger.

His current job sees him hand-deliver legal documents, bound in ribbon, around the Court of Session.

Dashing between his firm’s office in George Street and up The Mound to the court helps keep him fit.

He has only ever taken time off to serve as a radio operator with the RAF during the Second World War.

“I dread the thought of giving up my job,” said John.

“If I didn’t work I would spend my days still going up to court to meet the friends I have made there.

“I suppose you could say I’m too old to retire.”

The grandad-of-five is so hooked on working, his bosses struggle to get him to take holidays.

They had to put him on a four-day week last month to make up for the holidays he never takes.

A half crown coin was part of his wage when he started (Andrew Cawley / DC Thomson)

But John says he’s “even at a loss on the Fridays I have to take off work now”.

“I come into town and sit by the Scott Monument … I’m not really the sort to go to Primark or Harvey Nicks,” he laughs.

In addition to his daily walks around the streets of Edinburgh, John credits his no-nonsense diet with keeping him trim.

He tucks into two plates of home-made porridge every day one in the morning and another at supper time.

He said: “I love porridge. It sets me up for the day and gives me a good night’s sleep, too.”

Part of his need to keep working well into his 90s has also been fuelled by the sad loss of his wife, Catherine.

She passed away from motor neurone disease eight years ago.

John who last year walked 20 miles of the West Highland Way to raise money for MND Scotland met Catherine at a Royal Air Forces Association dance shortly after John was demobilised following the end of the war.

The happily-married Meadowbank couple never got the chance to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary or go on a longed-for trip to the Norwegian fjords.

But he knows he has to keep on working, as that’s what she “would have wanted for him”, he adds.

Aside his work and family, John’s loyalties lie with his life-long team, Hibs.

He’s never late for work as he sports a watch his old original boss, W Wilson Terris, a member of the Scottish Football Association, brought him back from a Hibs versus Sparta game in Prague in the 1950s.

“It has kept perfect time ever since,” he said.

His weekends are spent discussing past victories with an old Hearts friend at the Auld Hundred pub on Rose Street in the city centre.

After more than 50 years’ custom at the well-known watering hole, staff now offer him a discount on his pint of Tennent’s lager.

“It’s better than watching TV which can be poor some Saturday nights.” John laughs, an ever-present sparkle in his eye.

Grant Knight, of TC Young Wilson Terris, has been John’s boss since 1989. He’s delighted to have such a long-serving member of staff at the firm.

“We believe John is the world’s longest-serving employee,” he said.

“Life wouldn’t be the same around here without him.

“When I tell people our messenger has worked for the firm for almost 80 years they think it’s extraordinary that we have an octogenarian on the staff.

“I then have to explain that’s the number years he’s been on the staff.

“The look on their faces is priceless.”

John’s long service was recently honoured by one of Scotland’s top judges.

He was special guest of honour at the opening of the new legal term, invited by Lord Sutherland, the Lord Justice Clerk.

All of the court staff know John too and all of the top legal figures have time for him.

One court insider said: “It’s nice to see everyone defer to him. He’s an inspiring figure who’s earned respect from an amazing show of loyalty.”

John who is always dapper in a smart suit, tie and polished shoes was recently given a clean bill of health by his doctors and wants to work well past turning 100.

“I never want to retire,” the inspiring figure grins. “It seems I am to outlast everyone.”Veterans who simply didn’t want to retire Esther Brauer and Alfred Feld both worked into their 80s

JOHN is part of a small but hard-working gang of people who have worked on well past retirement.

Financial worker Alfred Feld, clocked on at the same New York bank for 75 years.

He joined as an office boy in 1933 and rose through the ranks to become a private wealth manager handling some of the USA’s richest investors.

Like John Burns, Alfred only broke his work service to serve in the Second World War.

He died aged 98 in Florida, five years after retiring.

Postmistress Esther Brauer retired last year after 61 years behind the counter in Kylesku, Sutherland.

Esther worked from an 8ft by 6ft wooden shed. She stepped down aged 83 in May 2014 after a slow internet service blighted her rural job.

She provided a six-days-a-week service and said the biggest change over the years had been “the computer”.

Until she was 60, she was also the local postwoman, delivering mail on an arduous 18-mile route.

Train driver Steve Anderson finally left his cab in 2010 after 50 years working on the railways. He started his career at 15 as an engine cleaner

Steve from Salisbury, Wiltshire, became an engine driver in 1969 and retired in 2010. 63 years on the job and still going strong: Meet the man who wants to work until the day he dies – click here to read more