Roll of Honour

Jim Brierley

Readers of the Mufti, the RSL (Returning Serviceman’s League) magazine that list all ex service members deaths, we were shocked to see the name Jim Brierley part of the list. Jim was Ex 9 Sqn and a member of the Airborne Engineers Association. Serving in WW2. His name to fame however that he is was listed as the oldest sky diver at 88 years of age. It’s believed he still continued into his early 90s. At 89, Jim Brierley has jumped out of a plane not once, not thrice, but 3247 times.

"You can add another 20 to that figure including army jumps (as a paratrooper in World War II)," says the octogenarian who completed his most recent jump in September 2019 on his 89th birthday.

The impressive record is not his only boast. When he was 88, Jim, who lived on Phillip Island, held the title of world's oldest skydiver. It is a claim he has been forced to cede in the past year once he started tandem skydiving, rather than jumping solo."My reactions are OK but landings aren't as good as they could be," Jim says. The largest group of people he has jumped with is 21, the highest altitude was 25,500ft (which required oxygen). He has jumped in such exotic locales as Jordan, Bali and Canada.

Such highs have not come with serious lows. Jim has broken many bones, including his back, cracked his skull, which caused a blood clot, and once even jumped with a fractured back."Accidents happen with the weather, misjudging wind strengths, self-delusion over whether you can make a manoeuvre, or sheer overconfidence," says the father of one.

"There's a global group, based in America, called JOEs - Jumpers over Eighty. I asked the organiser if there's a JON - Jumpers over Ninety. She said I’d be the first!