Bert McGinty died on October 2nd, 2026. I only knew Bert for a little under two years. We first met when I started playing pool on Tuesday nights; he was one of the regulars and I was amazed when some of the others told me he was in his nineties. Some time after this on one of the regular Friday night knees-ups, he was wished a happy birthday by all and sundry for his 95th! Even at this advanced age, he used to lead a walking group of mostly ‘younger’ people, and I gather had only recently given up riding a pushbike!
He was one of those blokes you immediately took a liking to. He didn’t take himself too seriously, and when he played a dud shot at pool, which was not too often, he would always have a little chuckle and often make a comment that would have the rest of the players chuckling. He was one of those people who, when you passed him in the street, or standing in the queue at the bar, you’d always say hello and often have a chat. He was one of those people who always made you smile. He lived a long life of 96 years, and I imagine he made everyone he knew smile.
One instance of Bert’s sharpness of mind at the age of then 95, was when I gave a talk on the evolution of the concept of evolution, which surprisingly has a history going back a couple of thousand years. One of the audience members asked: ‘How come all people look different and all members of the same species of animal look the same?’ I explained that it was purely a matter of perspective, and Bert piped up that he had been a dairy farmer and all his cows were different, and he could recognise each of them such that they all had names. It was the perfect real world example of what I tried to explain in an abstract way. Even though I only knew Bert for such a short time, I will miss him.