Peter Oakley

For the United States Representative, see Peter Davis Oakey.

Peter Oakley
Oakley in 2011
Born(1927-08-20)20 August 1927
Belper, Derbyshire, England
Died23 March 2014(2014-03-23) (aged 86)
Bakewell, Derbyshire, England
Years active2006–2014
SpousePatricia Oakley[1]
YouTube information
Channel
Genre(s)Vlogging, autobiography
Subscribers105,000 [2][3]
Total views11,416,057 [2][3]
Last updated: 13 Aug 2024

Peter Oakley (20 August 1927 – 23 March 2014) was an English pensioner and Internet personality, who posted YouTube videos under the Internet pseudonym geriatric1927.[4] With his YouTube debut in August 2006 with Telling it all, a series of five-to-ten-minute autobiographical videos, Oakley gained popularity with a wide section of the YouTube community.[5] Amongst the autobiographical details revealed in his videos are that he served as a radar mechanic during World War II, that he had a lifelong love of motorcycles, and that he lived alone as a widower and pensioner.

His unforeseen rise was widely reported by international media outlets and online news sources and blogs.[6] After resisting all media attention for a long time (including requests for interviews, photographs, and attempts to identify him), insisting that he only wished to converse with the YouTube community in an informal and personal way, Oakley finally gave his first interview, for the BBC's The Money Programme, which was aired on BBC Two on 16 February 2007.

By mid-2006, Oakley was the most-subscribed channel on YouTube, only to be passed by Lonelygirl15 28 days after achieving that status and was the first channel to achieve 20,000 subscribers.[7] His rise to the #1 position took place in just over a week. In the process, he displaced users who had been around since the site's launch, including NBC-signed Brooke Brodack. In November of that year, he had 30,000 subscribers. Oakley also holds the record for being the first user on YouTube to reach the milestone of 25,000 subscribers.[8] He uploaded 434 videos between 2006 and 2014 covering several topics from childhood memories to setting up a Google account.[9] He also set up a second channel dedicated to music, Geriatric1927Blues, in 2009.[10] His main channel reached the 100,000 subscriber milestone in January 2023.

Oakley was later diagnosed with cancer which was too far advanced for treatment. He posted his final video on 12 February 2014 and died a month later on the morning of 23 March 2014, aged 86.[11]

  1. ^ Carter, Claire (26 March 2014). "'Hello YouTubers' pensioner dies after becoming internet hit". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 28 January 2020. He was conscripted into the Navy at 18 and became a radar technician and married his wife Patricia...
  2. ^ a b "geriatric1927 - About". YouTube. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
  3. ^ a b "About geriatric1927". YouTube.
  4. ^ What to watch on the web: Video Blogs, BBC News, 27 November 2006 . Retrieved 29 December 2006.
  5. ^ "geriatric1927's Youtube profile". Youtube.com. 24 July 2010. Retrieved 3 August 2010.
  6. ^ Pensioner tops web video clips Alex Kumi, The Guardian, 14 August 2006
  7. ^ Lorenz, Taylor (2023). Extremely Online. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-9821-4686-3. LCCN 2023941468.
  8. ^ "YouTube - Broadcast Yourself". youtube.com. Archived from the original on 3 September 2006.
  9. ^ "Peter Oakley, the 'Internet Grandad', dies aged 86". The Independent. 25 March 2014. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
  10. ^ "Geriatric1927Blues". YouTube.com. Retrieved 9 January 2021.
  11. ^ "'Internet Grandad' Peter Oakley passes away aged 86 - ITV News". Itv.com. 25 March 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2014.