1 - Look and Wonder ~5 mins
Read the line on the board.
The person must have attained the age of seventy.
attained means reached, or got to.
From 1 January 1909, that line meant an old person could collect a small weekly pension at the post office.
Our question is this. In 1909, how could an old person prove they were seventy, and how sure could anyone be?
2 - Read and Learn ~8 mins
Let's find out why proving age in 1909 was so hard.
3 - Place the Years, Weigh One Clash ~15 mins
Use the timeline. Place each year, then work out the age it gives in 1909.
- 1909, the first pensions, is on the line already. Place 1864, when births were first written down. How old could the oldest person with a birth record be in 1909?
- In 1909 a member of parliament read out this newspaper report about one old man:
Martin Regan, Cultybo, lost his pension on a return made from the census of 1851, which showed him to be only 58 years old, but his book was soon afterwards restored on a certificate from the 1841 census, according to which he was 74 years old.
When was he born, by each census? Can both be right?
From the Big Wind to the first pensions
4 - Write It in Your Copy ~3 mins
Before you write, look at the three kinds of proof we met: a census search, a person's own memory, and remembering the Big Wind.
In your copy, finish this sentence in your own words:
The proof of age I would trust most in 1909 is ... because ...
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