It was a classic case of the left hand — or rather the left page — not knowing what the right was doing. Leading the birthday greetings in the Court & Social section of the Daily Telegraph last Thursday was Dave Brubeck, aged 92. Whoops! Opposite was a long obituary of the jazz giant, who had died the day before at 91.

Such an error would have been unimaginable years ago when every newspaper had an editor who took an overview of the whole publication. Now different bits of it don’t even need to be got ready for the press in the same office, or even the same country.

Brubeck’s death, at a ripe old age, coincided with the passing of a woman who achieved even greater longevity. Besse Cooper was in fact the oldest person in the world, aged 116, when she met her maker following a hairdo and a “big old breakfast” at her American home.

The Times noted in its leader column on Thursday that she had been one of only 28 people still living who had been born in the 19th century. It happened that one of these celebrated her 113th birthday the very next day. Grace Jones, of Bermondsey, is Britain’s oldest person.

It is a curious fact that each of the UK’s top-ten oldies lives in England. Only one, Reginald Dean of Wirksworth — in tenth place at 110 — is a man.

As a cub reporter, I covered the consecutive birthdays — from memory his 106th to 108th — of the oldest man of the day. I marvelled that he spoke of Benjamin Disraeli and W.E. Gladstone as I did of Harold Macmillan or Harold Wilson.

The old boy celebrated his anniversaries with various aeronautical exploits. They were ‘fixed’ by Jimmy Savile in a dramatic departure for him from involvement with people in an age bracket with which he will henceforth always be associated.