ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22368, 15 September 1934, Page 14

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD

MRS JOSEPH CROCOME STILL ACTIVE AND WELL Mrs Joseph Crocome, who to-day will celebrate her 100th birthday, was born in Edinburgh in the year 1534. When only 18 years of age she left Scotland, and came out to New Zealand on the sailing ship Stately. She resided in Goodwood for two years, when she married Dr Joseph Crocome, the wedding taking place , at Port Chalmers because ministers were “few and far between.” Mrs Crocome resided in Waikouaiti until 1915, and then she came to live in Dunedin. Her husband, who died in 1874, was the first medical practitioner in Otago, and the district in which he practised spread from Waikouaiti to Port Chalmers. Born in Bath, England, Dr Crocomc when still a young man left for New Zealand, travelling us a ship’s surgeon, but the vessel was wrecked. He reached Sydney, and eventually came on to New Zealand, where he followed his profession until the time of his death. Mrs Crocome, who resides with her daughter, Mrs Ritchie, Royal crescent, Musselburgh, still retains all her faculties, and is energetic and capable about the house. Active physically, she is still able to make her own bed and do dusting and general housework, while her excellent memory enables her to talk interestingly on numerous subjects and events which took place as far back as the middle of last century. She boasts that she has never had a serious illness in her life, nor has she suffered an accident of any kind. Of a retiring nature, Mrs Crocome has few visitors, but enjoys spending a quiet life with her family. With 100 years of life behind her she has seen many changes, and has decided views' on modern youth. She looks with disfavour on “short skirts and bobbed hair.”