Bradford’s longest-serving registrar has retired after 36 years and tens of thousands of births, deaths and marriages.

Robert Wallace, 64, is now planning to spend more time with his own family – wife Sandra, their children and grandchildren – at their Yeadon home.

He said: “After all those years of sharing happy and sad times with other people and their families it will be nice to spend more time with my own.’’ During his time at Bradford Register Office, in Manor Row, he has registered 34,000 births, 21,000 deaths and 4,000 marriages.

He started his career off on July 27, 1974, by working as a registrar of marriages and in January, 1981, he was promoted to registrar of births, deaths and marriages.

He said: “There have been many memorable times and milestones in my career. We used to thump away on typewriters when I first started but now it’s all on computers.

“We have diversified greatly with our services. Marriages used to be very basic and every 15 minutes, but now we tailor-make them to suit the couple, with music and readings, and there are civil partnerships now too.’’ Mr Wallace is also looking forward to enjoying more of his hobbies of photography and gardening.

He said: “I’m a bit of a railway buff and have a model set in the basement that I’ll be tinkering with.’’ And he will also be taking advantage of a sister’s move to sunny Spain. He added: “I’m sure I’ll be paying her a visit soon !”