MONK BRETTON’S two oldest residents Gertrude Atkinson and Bertha Fox, who had been friends since schooldays, were both celebrating their 100th birthdays 40 years ago this week.
The lifelong friends reached the milestone within a week of each other.
Mrs Fox, of Walker Terrace, was 100 on November 9 1977, while Mrs Atkinson, of Burton Road, was 100 exactly a week earlier.
Twenty friends attended a party for Mrs Atkinson her birthday and Mrs Fox was the chief guest. Bouquets were presented to the women by Rev Harold Ingamells, vicar of Monk Bretton.
On the Sunday a quarter peal of bells rang at the parish church.
Reaching the age of 100 is still a newsworthy event today and the Chronicle still regularly features the borough’s centenarians. But life expectancy has continued to rise so 40 years ago it was even more remarkable, and especially for two close friends to reach the milestone.
Benjamin Disraeli was prime minister when Mrs Fox and Mrs Atkinson were born, and Queen Victoria was 40 years into her reign. The pair would have been 23 when she died in 1901. They would have been 36 at the outbreak of the First World War, 61 when the Second World War began and 86 when President John F Kennedy was assassinated.
