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Note: Founder and Director of Delabole Slate Quarry, Cornwall. First chairman of Delabole Parish Council, elected at it's first meeting, 13 Dec 1894. Interview in Cornish and Devon Post, Saturday 27 July 1929. 'Bude's "Grand Old Man." [A Special Interview] The Editor and Staff of the Cornish and Devon Post have received the following message in printed script on a dainty folder "Mr. Job Hockaday wishes to thank you for your remembrance of his hundredth birthday. The many kind wishes of his friends helped to make a happy day.-7, Morwenna, Bude, July, 1929." - We should like to take the opportunity of giving some further information to our readers concerning this respected local centenarian. It is contained in a report of an interview had with Mr. Hockaday by a member of our staff some time since but when Mr. Hockaday was within measurable distance of centenarian honours. This narrative has hitherto remained unpublished. Mr. Hockaday has defied the doctors with regard to the state of his health on three occasions. It was in the prime of life that he gave the medicos their first rebuff. A desire on his part to insure his life led to a lengthy, and evidently a thorough, examination by four insurance company doctors, and he was eventually rejected. Twice since, in later life, doctors have given him up - once, when he had a heart attack, and again when he had a clot of blood in the veins and was in bed for five months, and that was some 40 years ago, but he still survives and has passed his hundredth birthday. What is the secret of his longevity? - Mr. Hockaday gives several secondary causes. He attaches importance to a saying in a newspaper that he read in youth: "It is only cold steel that cuts," which he interpreted to mean that one should keep one's temper, and that in losing it nothing is gained and much lost. During the 48 years Mr. Hockaday was at Delabole, he never remembers giving way to temper. Another reason he gives is "A reasonable life." To look at life from the first couple of decades, seemed to him tremendously long; but now Mr. Hockaday says it does not seem to be a long time. I well remember our last chat and I well remember, too, with what a brightened countenance he told me his age, of the tricks his health played on the doctors, and the many events in his personal history. I shall always bear in mind the picture that the sitting room of 7, Morwenna-terrace presented that sunny morning: My friend, in a huge arm chair, was apparently deep in thought. He stirred from his chair to greet me, and his eyes twinkled behind a pair of glasses in his delight to have the opportunity of chatting with a newspaperman and a Delabolian, with which town he was so intimately connected and of which he was so fondly proud. Our conversation was rather difficult to get on with. Mr. Hockaday is old and I am young, and the immediate and pressing subjects in which I was interested had not stirred my friend to any large measure of interest, for he had not attended a public meeting for 14 years. Thus he was not in a position to give an opinion on my query as to whether he thought the present age was degenerating. He gave journalism rather a hard knock when he replied that the world was so changed and the papers now-a-days wrote so much and so much contradictorily, that he could not form an opinion. However, we managed to spend a delightful time together. We chatted for some time on different subjects, the conversation veering round to phases of politics - Liberalism, Communism, the Labour Party and Trades Unionism. Mr. Hockaday, I might add, soon got to work on these - supporting the first-named and scorning the last three. Mr. Hockaday has always been a staunch Liberal, at least from the time when he knew of Liberal principles. When he was young only about a couple of papers reached Bude about every few months and he did not know very much about Liberalism. But when he had opportunity of knowing it, there was none more keen than he. He well remembered the first election in Northern Cornwall in 1852 - "when Bude was a village," he added with a smile;- and from that time he took a keen interest in election affairs, taking the chair at several meetings when the Liberal candidate, a Mr. White, of London, was present. Mr. Hockaday has never had any room for Conservatism. Conservatism, in his opinion, was mixed up so much to-day that one could call it, if one liked to do so, Conservative-Liberalism. Turning to Communism, Mr. Hockaday said he hardly knew the meaning of it. His beliefs were not with the Labour Party because "every man is for himself, go where you will." He then related to me his connection - not very intimate he admitted - with newspaperdom. Mr. Hockaday was at one time the Bude correspondent to The Plymouth Journal and Mercury and in later years he wrote several paragraphs for the present Plymouth daily. He also sent many paragraphs of local news to The Cornish and Devon Post, of which he is a regular reader, when the late Lydra Powell was editor of this paper. Being a Delabolian myself, and Mr. Hockaday having been a resident there for a good many years, we were quite "at home" on the subject of Delabole, past and present. Mr. Hockaday was able to supply me with enough "copy" on Delabole during his stay there to fill a book, and I could supply an equal quantity on present Delabole. He well remembers the opening of the Wesleyan chapel at Delabole. The "chat" was wound up on the subject of religion. Mr. Hockaday is a Wesleyan and his views on whist drives and dancing are very pronounced. "Whist drives and dancing," he told me, "are not consistent for Wesleyans to practise and I consider that young persons ought not to be out late at night, especially at such a revel as the latter. If women had to dance with women and men with men and if the dances were held in the afternoon instead of at night, there would not be so many dancers." E.S.P. (Research):Search 1: Event: Birth/Christening, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1829, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 2: Event: Death/Burial, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1931, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 3: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Spouse's First Name: Anna Maria, Spouse's Last Name: STEP, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 4: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Spouse's First Name: Anna Maria, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 5: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Spouse's First Name: Anna Maria, Spouse's Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 6: Event: Birth/Christening, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: BANBURY, From Date: 1829, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 7: Event: Death/Burial, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: BANBURY, From Date: 1931, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 8: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: BANBURY, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 9: Event: Birth/Christening, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, From Date: 1829, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 10: Event: Death/Burial, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, From Date: 1931, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 11: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 12: Event: Birth/Christening, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1829, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 13: Event: Death/Burial, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1931, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 14: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 15: Event: Birth/Christening, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1829, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 16: Event: Death/Burial, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1931, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 17: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 18: Event: Birth/Christening, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: BANBURY, From Date: 1829, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 19: Event: Death/Burial, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: BANBURY, From Date: 1931, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 20: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: BANBURY, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Sub Region 2: Cornwall, Exact Spelling: No Search 21: Event: Birth/Christening, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1829, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 22: Event: Death/Burial, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1931, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 23: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Spouse's First Name: Anna Maria, Spouse's Last Name: STEP, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 24: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Spouse's First Name: Anna Maria, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 25: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Spouse's First Name: Anna Maria, Spouse's Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 26: Event: Birth/Christening, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: BANBURY, From Date: 1829, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 27: Event: Death/Burial, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: BANBURY, From Date: 1931, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 28: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: BANBURY, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 29: Event: Birth/Christening, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, From Date: 1829, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 30: Event: Death/Burial, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, From Date: 1931, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 31: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 32: Event: Birth/Christening, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1829, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 33: Event: Death/Burial, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1931, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 34: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 35: Event: Birth/Christening, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1829, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 36: Event: Death/Burial, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1931, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 37: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Father's First Name: James, Father's Last Name: HOCKADAY, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 38: Event: Birth/Christening, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: BANBURY, From Date: 1829, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 39: Event: Death/Burial, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: BANBURY, From Date: 1931, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No Search 40: Event: Marriage, First Name: Job, Last Name: HOCKADAY, Mother's First Name: Ann, Mother's Last Name: BANBURY, From Date: 1854, Date Range: 0, Region: British Isles, Sub Region 1: England, Exact Spelling: No
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