CENTENARIAN’S BIRTHDAY

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27733, 10 August 1955, Page 2

CENTENARIAN’S BIRTHDAY

MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM QUEEN Mrs Ellen Wilson, of Lyttelton, who celebrated her hundredth birthday yesterday, received many congratulatory messages. They included a cablegram from Buckingham Palace which read: “The Queen is much interested to hear that you are celebrating your hundredth birthday, and sends you warm congratulations and greetings.” Other messages were received from the Governor-General (Sir Willoughby Norrie), the Prime Minister (Mr Holland), Mr H. R. Lake, M.P., the Plunket Society, the Canterbury Pilgrims’ and Early Settlers’ Association, the British Sailors’ Society, Dr. and Mrs P. A. M. Heath, of Lyttelton, who are at present in Edinburgh, and Captain J. Andrews, Wa!t6n-on-Thames, London. Many visitors called on Mrs Wilson the day> deluding friends from Wellington. A caller in the morning was the Mayor of Lyttelton (Mr F. G. Briggs), who presented Mrs Wilson with a bouquet from the citizens of Lyttelton. Mr F. E. Sutton, chairman of the Lyttelton Harbour' Board, was one of the visitors. J®. * long time, a hundred years,” Mrs Wil§on told a reporter yesterday morning. Seated before a bright fire in a cosy room overlooking Corsair Bay, Mrs Wilson was preparing to receive her first visitors. “Yet sometimes, it does not seem so long,” she added. Mrs Wilson admitted that her memory was failing. “I cannot think back like I used-to,” shte said. She liked children, she said, and always got on well with them. She thought that the children of today were not a bit naughtier than those of years ago. It was often the parents who were to blame, she said.