MODERN GRANDMOTHERS

Evening Star, Issue 22070, 2 July 1935, Page 12

MODERN GRANDMOTHERS

ADVENTURES FOR OLD WIVES Three adventurous women were recently singled out for special mention by London journals. They are Mrs Ann Stansall, Mrs Murray and Mrs Dick Burge. Going to the cinema at the age of 105, crossing the Atlantic for the fifty-third time at 77, and promoting boxing are their respective achievements. „ Mrs Stansall celebrated her 105th birthday not long ago. Mansfield, her home town, did not let the occasion go by unmarked. The mayor (Cr. E. Mellors) invited her to go to the cinema. Mrs Stansall accepted. She went with the mayoress, and had to climb two flights of stairs to get to her seat. When she was asked if she would like to rest and “ get her breath,” she smiled, and replied, “ I like the exercise.”

" This is the first time I have been to the pictures since I was a hundred.” she, told an interviewer. “I don’t often go, but I like them. I can see and hear quite well, so I can enjoy them.

“ I had lots of letters and telegrams, one from the Duke of Portland,” she said. “ The mayoress sent me a basket of fruit and flowers, and I have also had 41b of tea and a lovely iced cake.” Mrs Stansall, who is a teetotaller and a vegetarian, says good hours and three plain meals a day keep her well. She has lived, in the same house at St. John’s Place for nearly 70'years. Adventurous woman No. 2 is Mrs Dodd, widow of a Canadian judge. When interviewed at her Bayswater hotel, soon after her arrival in the-Cunard-White Star liner Ascania—her fifty-third trip—she was immensely pleased to be in London again. “ I am a- confirmed traveller,” she said. “ Nothing is better fun than making these voyages between Canada, where I was born, and England. But what a contrast to the old days these wonderful liners of to-day are. When I made my first sailing we had only one candle in our cabins.” When it was suggested that shortly she might be able to fly across the Atlantic, she declared, “ Ships and trains are good enough for me.” Adventurous women No. 3 is Mrs Burge, " Queen of Boxing,” widow of the man who 25 years ago converted an old chapel into what is now known as : The Ping. Blnekfriars. She spoke to n gathering of friends in London to the silver inbilee of Tbo Ring. . It was Mrs Burge who introduced Sunday boxing into England. She claims to hare been responsible for 'breaking down the objection to wbnp'eii as spectators at the ringside.