Joan celebrates her 100th birthday

A RESIDENT at Birstall’s Cedar Mews care home has celebrated her 100th birthday.

Joan Robinson was living alone with the support of friends until her 93rd year, then moved to Cedar Mews, after a spell in hospital, to be nearer her son Malcolm.

Joan was born in Peterborough on March 28, 1923. She grew up with her parents and elder sister Peggy in the rural village of Helpston on the Lincolnshire/Cambridgeshire border, leaving school at 13 and spending her early teenage years working in the local cinema.

Joan was called up during WWII to train and work at BMARC (British Manufacturing & Research Company) in Grantham as a machinist making cannon firing pins for the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters. She was then posted in 1946 to join Two Egypt Command Signals and found herself in Suez and Cairo. From the photo archives, it looks to have been an exciting time, swimming in the Suez Canal, outings to the Pyramids and desert camel rides surrounded by plenty of fit soldiers and airmen, interspersed with a bit of work!

The end of her Army service in 1948 sees Joan boarding the troop transport ship SS Ormonde for the journey back to England, where she would meet a handsome young RAF Pilot returning from India. Now both demobbed, they married in his home town of Middles- brough in 1949 (both aged 26) and moved south to live and work in Harpenden, Hertfordshire.

Her husband Roland found work at the De Havilland aircraft factory, and Joan worked for Sussmans making shirts and pyjamas for M & S. They lived at 33 Salisbury Road (that number becomes important later).

When Joan’s only son Malcolm was born in December 1952, wartime rationing relatives in Middlesbrough and villages near Peterborough. Strangely neither parent wanted to travel abroad after their service lives. Joan finally retired after 36 years, only when her husband Roland died suddenly at work.

It was a tough time, but determined to carry on, and despite living alone, she learnt to drive and bought her first car. Her sister now lived in Australia and with some not insignificant effort, Joan visited her twice, having never flown

With the support of her close friends, she managed to continue living alone until her 93rd birthday, when she developed a back problem. After a spell in hospital, it was decided she would be safer in a care home in Leicester to be near Malcolm.

Fortunately, Cedar Mews Care home had just been built and the family secured room 33, so she would be able to remember the number. In fact, her daughter-in-law’s mother moved into the room next door on the same day.

Cedar Mews has been her home (the family call it a hotel) for six years now.

Malcolm said: “The staff and managers, many from the Birstall area, have provided a fun-filled friendly environment and excellent care.

“We all celebrated her 100th birthday at the home, along with family and friends. She is an amazingly strong woman, and I’m proud to be her son.”