LONDON -- A retired Welsh miner listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest living man died in his sleep Sunday at the age of 112, his family said.
John Evans died peacefully in his sleep at his home in near Swansea in Wales, about 150 miles west of London, his family told the British Broadcasting Corp.
Evans had told the BBC in an interview on his 110th birthday that his recipe for longevity was simple.
'I didn't have no drink, nor smoke, nor gamble, nor swear and tear,' Evans said.
Evans, born Aug. 19, 1877, held the title of the world's oldest living man for more than a year, according to the Guinness Book of Records 1990.
'Evans was oldest man with a birth record whom we know of in the world,' said Norris MacWhirter, a founding editor of the Guinness book. 'Guinness publishes in 33 languages, so there's not much possiblity of a person being in excess of 112 without our hearing about it.'
Evans was not the oldest living human, however. A Florida woman, Carrie C. White of Palatka, Fla., turned 115 in November and is still alive.
Last May, Evans' age overtook that of the owner of the record for longest-lived British man, John Mosley Turner, who died in 1968 at age 111 and 281 days, Guiness said.
Evans had worked as a miner for 60 years, after having first entered Welsh mines at age 12, according to the book.
He made medical history when he had a heart pacemaker installed at age 108, becoming the oldest man to undergo such an operation, the BBC said. He was able to be discharged from the hospital three days after the operation.
Two years later, a dapper-looking Evans wearing a tan hat took his first ever trip to London in a wheelchair to celebrate his 110th birthday.
The Guinness Book of Records suggested Evans was somewhat of a rarity in Britain, which has an estimated population of some 4,000 centenarians, of which only 22 percent are male.
The book said the oldest-ever authenticated age was that of Shigechiyo Izumi, who lived to be 120 years and 237 days. Izumi, of Asan on Tokunoshima, an island 820 miles southwest of Tokyo, died after developing pneumonia in 1986.
