YouTube's "Favourite Grandad" Died This Month

    Farewell Peter Oakley, aka geriatric1927.

    Alan White
    by Alan White

    BuzzFeed News Reporter, UK

    Between August and September 2006 Peter Oakley's channel was the most-subscribed in the world.

    Via youtube.com

    Here's his final video.

    View this video on YouTube

    "In conclusion I would say my possibly final goodbye. So goodbye."

    With his first video, uploaded in August 2006, he pledged to "bitch and moan about life in general".

    View this video on YouTube

    "I've got addicted to YouTube and it's a fascinating place to go to see all the wonderful videos that you young people have produced. So I thought I'd have a go at doing one myself."

    He followed it with commentary on current events and then a highly popular autobiographical series called "Telling It All".

    Via youtube.com

    In this series he talked about many of his life experiences including growing up during World War II, living as a young teen in Norwich as it was bombed by the Luftwaffe, his experience in the primary and secondary education system of England in the 1930s.

    He also discussed his conscription into the British Army, his return to civilian life, meeting his future wife, and his passion for motorbikes.

    Pretty soon his videos with their distinctive catchphrase "Hello, YouTubers", became a global phenomenon.

    Oakley was inundated with media offers, but preferred only to speak to his YouTube audience.

    View this video on YouTube
    youtube.com
    In 2007 he was part of a BBC documentary in which he was one of The Zimmers, a group of pensioners brought together to sing The Who's "My Generation" to highlight the plight of old-age pensioners in Britain.

    A short statement was posted on his website on March 23rd.

    Via youtube.com

    "Peter passed away this morning at 9:30, he was in no pain. I’ll miss my friend and I’m sure many of you will too. I have no words right now, I just got the news". An earlier statement on the site indicated he was suffering from cancer.

    Peter Oakley was born on August 20th, 1927, in Norwich, Norfolk.

    He died on March 23rd, 2014, in Bakewell, Derbyshire.

    A year before he wrote for a local paper about his life: "They named me the Internet Grandad. A friend said to me, 'that's a bit impertinent' – but no, I replied, I love it.

    It's absolutely amazing. I've done many things because of it."

    This post has been corrected to reflect the fact that some of the information came from Wikipedia.