ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 255, 28 October 1929, Page 14

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD.

CANTERBURY VETERAN.

ABLE TO WALK UNAIDED.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, Sunday. Mrs. Sarah Ann Toms is 100 years old to-day. ' Mrs. Toms is an inmate of the Jubilee Memorial Home, Woolston. She is still able to walk about unaided, and although she spends the greater part of her time in bed she frequently takes friends for a tour of the grounds. Although slightly deaf she is able to take part in an ordinary conversation without any effort. She is proud of the fact that she has hardly had a day's illness in her life. She can remember a', visit made by Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort to Chatham, in England.

Born in India in 1829, she conies of old Irish stock. Her father, Mr. John Doughney, was a non-commissioned officer in the army. When he was ordered home from India he first took

up residence at Chatham, and then in Jersey, Channel Islands, where Mrs. Toms met her hushand. After their marriage they came to New Zealand, about the sixties or early seventies. They settled at Christchurch. Mr. Toms died in 1000 at the age of 75 years.