MORE than 90 people gathered at Bridgetown’s Geegelup Village on Thursday, September 25 to help Edna May Lamb celebrate her 100th birthday in fine style.
The second child in a family of five, Edna May Lamb (nee Parker) was born in Hull, Yorkshire on September 25, 1908 to Wilhelmina Hutton and John Parker.
Edna’s earliest and fondest memories were of her and her father riding together on the horse-drawn cart her father drove for a delivery company.
But then came the first World War, commonly misnamed as the Great War, and the memories turned to terror as the family hid under the kitchen table during the bombing raids on Hull and other major cities in England.
Her older sister Alice died when Edna was just 14, and she had to walk from her home to Trinity Church in Hull, about five miles, to get the vicar.
Then she had to go on to work so she did not lose her job.
Edna began a lifetime of travel when she reached her 20s, finding herself a job on Guernsey Island.
It was here that she met and fell in love with a young soldier, James Lamb.
They were married in 1937 and two years later, when James was posted to India, Edna and their baby daughter accompanied him.
In 1939 the world was once again plunged into war.
James was sent with the British Army to Egypt, while Edna and her daughter were repatriated to Britain.
James, after seeing a lot of front line service, was returned home from Iraq in 1944, and died of a war-related illness just seven months after the birth of his son.
As the family lived in an army house, Edna was given a notice to quit the property and move out after the death of her husband.
She decided her family needed to make a fresh start and applied to emigrate to Australia and, sponsored by a friend, Noelene Scrimager, arrived in Fremantle with her two children in August 1950.
On her own with two young children, Edna knew she would have to get work fast for the family to survive.
She immediately began work as a shop assistant at Foy and Gibsons in Hay Street and took a mortgage on a house in Perth’s most northern suburb, Tuart Hill, just one year later.
In 1971, at the age of 63, Edna retired from her job at Boans where she now worked, and moved to Gooseberry Hill.
She never remarried and lived independently there, among friends, for nearly 30 years.
In her retirement she enjoyed travelling and spent time in South Africa, Egypt, America, the Caribbean, United Kingdom, Italy, France and Spain.
Her last flight was to Canberra in 1995 at age 87.
Edna moved to Geegelup Village in 2003 to be close to her daughter in Bridgetown.
For the first time in her life, she has had to rely on others, but she is thankful for the wonderful care she receives.
At 100, Edna is still enjoying life, with two children, five grand daughters, seven great-grandchildren and a wonderful, infectious sense of humour.
“I’m looking forward to the next 100 years,” she said.
Paying tribute to his mother, Richard Lamb said she had always been an independent and determined person.
“She is one of those human beings who endures,” he said.
“She worked from the age of 14 years for 50 years straight, with only two years away from work, working six days a week as well as running a home and bringing up two children.
“She has always worked, and always looked after herself, without the help of a man after her husband died.”
During her 100 years of life, Edna has seen some marvellous things happen, as well as some major disasters.
She was four years old when the Titanic sank and she was born before plastic, nylon and bakelite were invented.
Florence Nightingale was still alive, and Edna was born in the same month and year that Sir Donald Bradman was born, and the same month and year that the first Model T Ford rolled off the production line in Detroit.
The first New York to Paris car race started in the year of her birth and the women of Victoria were awarded the vote.
The American FBI was established, and the Boone Suffrage Parade took place in America.
Also in September, the General Motors Company was founded.
Currently the oldest known living woman resides in America at 115 years of age.
Her name is Edna Parker, the same as Edna Lamb before she was married.
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