A 95-YEAR-old man was told that he was the oldest ‘walk in’ customer on the day the Santander closed its doors in Ross-on-Wye for the final time.

Roy Rogers, born in 1930, first came to Ross-on-Wye when his daughter took over Wilton Court Hotel in 2000 and set up the financial side of the operation.

He and his wife Sylvia only moved to the town four years ago and Roy uses the town’s Santander branch on a weekly basis.

Mr Rogers said: “Over time the staff got to know me very well and it makes me sad that they’ve gone. They provided a wonderful service to me and other customers.

“I used the Ross branch twice on its last day and I was told that I was the oldest ‘walk in’ customer they have.

“I’d like to wish all the staff at the Ross branch of Santander the best for the future. I shall miss them, and I hope that they continue to be happy in their chosen careers.”

“I’ve been advised that I should do my banking online. However, I’m not a person who used the computer much these days.

“Some 25 years ago I fully embraced this new technology of the internet and the World wide web, but it’s got so complicated to navigate these days.”

Mr Rogers observed that it didn’t take the banking organisation long to remove all the signage as the façade was completely bare on Thursday morning, except for the empty cash machine.

He said that he will be making use of the community facility at the library, but he said he would probably do most of his banking from now on at the Post Office.

Mr Rogers, a former chartered accountant who worked for Lucas industries, Blue Circle Cement and MGM studios at Elstree, joked about his name Roy Rogers and said that the film character took ‘his’ name in 1937 and added: “Everybody assumes I was named after the King of the Cowboys, but in reality it must have been the other way round.

“I have spent my life being compared to the singing cowboy. But unless you are of my generation or slightly younger, people no longer relate to the singer unless they know of the chain of restaurants trading under his name.”

Mr Rogers, who lived in Potters Bar in London for 60 years, said that Ross has changed so much in the past two decades and said that he knows of another Roy Rogers in town, but he said the pair have never met up but believes he is quite a few years younger than himself and he would have probably been named after the film character.

The 95-year-old says that he keeps fit by playing tennis and table tennis and said his philosophy is that he has to keep moving, eat sensibly and in moderation.

Roy said that despite his age he even finds time to befriend a man, a lot younger than himself, at a residential home who doesn’t get much in the way of visitors.