Britain’s oldest person has died just a month short of her 112th birthday, it was announced this week.
Eunice Bowman was born in 1898 when Queen Victoria was on the throne.
Amazingly, she has seen five other monarchs, 22 prime ministers and lived through two world wars.
As well as crediting her long life to hard work and never smoking, she also said a “tipple of honey” certainly helped.
Bowman was entered into the Guinness Book of Records in May when she was declared the country’s oldest resident after the death of Florrie Baldwin aged 114.
As a journalist, I often speak to people who are celebrating their 100th birthday and I love to ask what they think helped them get to such a great old age.
I’ve had people tell me it’s because of a daily glass of whisky, cod liver oil or even thanks to a daily cooked breakfast.
Recently one woman told me there was no secret, but she just found she got old day by day, whereas another said it was due to working hard.
My husband’s grandparents have both reached 92 years and they put this down to healthy living in the countryside.
I’m sure happiness and being together also plays a large part.
They celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary a couple of years ago and we arranged for them to receive a telegram from the Queen.
I think long-living must be in their genes as all of my husband’s grandma’s siblings have made it past 90 years.
If I manage to make it to 100 years old, it will be September, 2083, which seems an unimaginably long time away.
I think I will put my future many years down to cups of tea, as that’s something I’ve consumed all my life.
There are certainly things I hope to have achieved by then — being surrounded by a loving family would be the most important thing and also having travelled to all the countries and places I would like to see.
I wonder if I will have managed to keep up with all the new technology that will be around or if my grandchildren will be despairing at my feeble attempts.
When I think of all the things Bowman must have seen, it is incredible to think of the changes she has lived through. She lived in three centuries spanning a wealth of history.
The year Bowman was born, the Spanish-American War broke out, Henry Lindfield became the first person to die in an automobile accident, and China leased Hong Kong’s new territories to Britain for 99 years.
Other notable events include the invention of Corn Flakes by Will Kellogg so Bowman was able to enjoy a bowl her whole life, scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium and H.G. Wells published War of the Worlds.
With more people living longer, I expect we will continue to see people breaking records with more grand old ages.
But there won’t be many more people who will be able to claim they lived in three centuries and were born in the reign of Queen Victoria.
@Tagline:<t-0.5>Rebecca Lawrence can be reached at 691-1258.
