THE GUARDIAN HERITAGE REPORT

“Old Thom: The 120-Year-Old Tortoise Who Outlived Five Families”

By Eleanor Marsh – Lyme Regis, Dorset (2025)

In the quiet coastal town of Lyme Regis, locals often speak of “Old Thom,” a Mediterranean tortoise believed to be around 120 years old. Passed through five generations of families, Thom has become one of Britain’s most unusual living antiques — a creature who has quietly witnessed a century of history without ever leaving his garden for more than a slow afternoon wander.

Thom’s story resurfaced this year after local archivist Margaret Ellison, 72, uncovered a small trunk while reorganizing materials for the Lyme Regis Museum. Inside were faded photographs, handwritten letters, and veterinary documents that trace the tortoise’s life back to the early 1900s.

According to the records, Thom was originally purchased in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1905 by British naval officer Captain Harold Whitmore. Whitmore brought the young tortoise back to England in 1907, settling him into a garden in Portsmouth. Family letters describe Thom wandering between vegetable patches as Whitmore prepared for naval deployments.

During World War I, Whitmore’s letters mention Thom “marching through the cabbage rows” while artillery could be heard across the Channel. After Whitmore died in 1931, the tortoise was given to his niece, Elizabeth Harrow, who lived in Kent. Harrow protected Thom during the Blitz, keeping him in a cellar whenever the air-raid sirens sounded. According to Ellison, Thom survived every bombing run without a scratch.

By the 1960s, the Harrow family moved to Somerset, bringing Thom along. Neighbors at the time recall the tortoise roaming freely, often disappearing for two or three days before being found under a hedge or beside a compost heap. “He wasn’t a pet in the usual sense,” says George Milton, 81. “He was more like a slow observer. My parents fed him lettuce, and then decades later my grandkids fed him the same way.”

When Elizabeth Harrow passed away in 1989, Thom was inherited by her goddaughter, Caroline Finch, who later moved to Lyme Regis. Finch became the tortoise’s fourth official keeper and cared for him for over 30 years. During this time, Thom unintentionally became a local figure. Children on Cobb Road left him strawberries, and tourists occasionally spotted him sunbathing near the cliffs above Lyme Regis Fossil Beach.

Even in old age, Thom showed remarkable health. “You look into those eyes and it feels like he remembers everything,” Finch says. “He’s moved slowly through more history than all of us.”

Earlier this year, Finch — now 67 — decided to pass Thom on to the Samuels family, who own a larger enclosed garden suitable for elderly tortoises. Before the handover, Thom was examined by Dr. Alan Merefield, a veterinary specialist from Bridport. “For a tortoise of this age, he’s in outstanding condition,” Dr. Merefield said. “It’s entirely possible he’ll live another decade or more.”

For the people of Lyme Regis, Thom represents more than longevity. He symbolizes endurance — an animal who survived world wars, changing families, new cities, and more than a century of silent observation.

As Milton puts it:

With his fifth family now caring for him, Old Thom enters yet another chapter — calmly, patiently, and at his own timeless pace.

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