You’re never too long in the tooth to emigrate!

A retired dentist became Britain’s oldest emigrant this month when he left for a new life in New Zealand – aged 102!

Eric King-Turner, who served as a dental surgeon in the Royal Navy, is in the middle of the 12,000-mile voyage from Southampton with his 87-year-old Kiwi wife, Doris.

Due to have his 103rd birthday only a few weeks after their arrival in New Zealand, he said: ‘Being in the Guinness Book of Records is not important to me. What’s important is that when I’m 105 I don’t want to be thinking “I wish I had moved to the other side of the world when I was 102”.

‘I like New Zealand. The way of life is much the same as here but it is not so crowded and the weather is better. I’m an Englishman through and through and there will be things I miss such as my friends but New Zealanders are very easy to get on with.’

The couple, both widowed, married in New Zealand in 1995 before returning to Mr King-Turner’s home in Hampshire.

Mrs King-Turner still has a home in Nelson, which is in South Island, where the couple will be setting up home.

She sponsored her husband’s emigration application to her home country.

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