Originally published 2018-03-06.
Esmond Allcock, then 107, cuddles his great-great-grandson and namesake, baby Esmond, during their first meeting in 2017. Photo: Jenna Lehne.
Esmond Allcock, a Saskatchewan man born in January 1910, met a baby named after him in 2017, when he was 107. The child was his great-great-grandson. Allcock had often joked that among his dozens of descendants, nobody had ever given a son his name, so his great-granddaughter Jenna Lehne decided to change that. Her photographs and account of the visit, first shared through the storytelling site Love What Matters, travelled around the world.
Here is the story behind the pictures, what is known about Allcock's long life, and one detail of the original telling that turned out not to be quite right.
A family of 71 and one missing name
By early 2018, Allcock's family tree had grown to six children, 17 grandchildren, 36 great-grandchildren and 12 great-great-grandchildren. Counting all four generations below him, that is 71 people.
According to Lehne, he once remarked to her grandmother (his daughter) that he was responsible for 71 descendants and not one of them had been named after him. It was a light-hearted complaint, but it stayed with her. She and her husband already wanted to give their second baby a family name, and that conversation settled it. Their son, Esmond, was born on 11 January 2017, almost 107 years after the man he was named for.
Who Esmond Allcock was
Esmond Allcock at his care home in Saskatchewan. He turned 108 on 26 January 2018. Photo: Jenna Lehne.
Esmond Johnston Allcock was born on 26 January 1910 near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, when the province itself was less than five years old. His life spanned two world wars, the Great Depression on the Prairies, the arrival of radio, television and the internet, and the reigns of five British monarchs.
He married his wife, Helen, and the couple were together for 72 years, until her death in 2011. Of their six children, two died before him, in 1976 and 1998. Like many people who reach extreme old age, he outlived not only friends of his own generation but some of the generation after.
Lehne described him as a dapper man, and in her photos he is neatly dressed in a checked shirt, bright-eyed and quick to smile.
The "Walk Walk" bond
Lehne was about 30 when she wrote about him, and she pointed out how unusual it was to have known a great-grandfather for her whole life. For most people, she noted, great-grandparents are a blurry early memory, if they are remembered at all.
Their connection began when she was a toddler. As she was learning to walk, she would crawl over to him, ask to "walk walk", and he would take both her hands and lead her around the room. As she grew up he called her his little buddy, and the walking game became a family story he liked to repeat.
When she was expecting her first son, he reportedly phoned around the family to share the news. It was the second pregnancy that brought the naming idea.
The meeting
(The video originally embedded here is no longer available on YouTube.)
Lehne lived in a neighbouring province. Once the winter snow had cleared in 2017, she drove her baby to Saskatchewan to introduce the two Esmonds.
The visit did not start as she had imagined. Her great-grandfather recognised his daughter and son-in-law, but he was not sure who she was. She explained, though by then he was already absorbed in the baby on his lap. Partway through the visit, the memory came back to him, and he placed her: I was the Walk Walk girl.
The two Esmonds, born almost 107 years apart. Lehne said her great-grandfather kept kissing the baby's head during the visit. Photo: Jenna Lehne.
Holding the baby, he kissed the top of his head and repeated the same sentence several times: You don't know what this means to me.
Lehne wrote that she could not fully put into words what the moment meant to her either.
In the months after, he asked her grandmother for news of his namesake often, and she kept him supplied with photos and updates. Lehne planned another trip once the next winter was over, with "little Ez" in tow.
Was he really Canada's oldest man?
In her post, written soon after his 108th birthday, Lehne described him as officially the oldest man in Canada. At the time, that was widely believed, and news coverage repeated it.
Later research by longevity record-keepers found otherwise. The Gerontology Wiki, which tracks verified supercentenarians and the oldest people in each country, notes that the subsequent discovery of an older man, Robert Wiener, meant Allcock never actually held the title. This does not diminish his life in any way; it is simply how age records work, as documentation for very old people often comes to light slowly.
Esmond Allcock died on 22 March 2018 in Kerrobert, Saskatchewan, aged 108 years and 55 days, only weeks after the story of his namesake spread online.
Why stories like this move people
Five living generations is still rare. It needs both long lives and fairly early parenthood at each step, and it gives the youngest family members a direct link to history they would otherwise read about. A baby born in 2017 being held by a man born in 1910 connects two centuries in a single photo.
Research on family relationships also suggests that close ties between grandparents and grandchildren can matter for wellbeing on both sides, giving older people a sense of purpose and children a wider circle of support. Moments like this one show that in a very human way.
Keeping the story of a family name
Young Esmond will not remember meeting his great-great-grandfather, so the story will reach him through photos and retelling. If you are naming a child after a relative, a few small steps help that story last:
- Write down why the name was chosen and who first suggested it.
- Label photos with full names, dates and places, not just "Grandpa and baby".
- Record the older relative talking, even for a few minutes, about their childhood and their favourite memories of the family.
- Note the shared stories, such as the "Walk Walk" game, that explain the bond.
Thanks to Jenna Lehne's photos and words, the younger Esmond already has more of that than most children ever will.
Sources: Story and photos by Jenna Lehne, via Love What Matters; life dates and record status from Gerontology Wiki: Esmond Allcock.
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