AN ANDOVER woman had reason to be excited on Tuesday as she celebrated her 100th birthday.

Born in Southampton at the start of the ‘Roaring Twenties’ on the July 21, 1920 in the reign of King George V and with David Lloyd George as the Prime Minister, Mavis Rummey has lived through quite a lot of change in the world.

It is doubtful she could of ever envisaged the unprecedented events of the last few months, though standing proudly for the two minute silence in her garden last month, with one of her support workers, for the 75th Anniversary of VE Day, she was heard to remark "it's just like the war."

Unable to care for both her children after being abandoned by their father, Mavis’s mother had made the difficult decision to place her with foster parents at a very young age and it was with them that she moved to Andover in the mid 1930s.

One of her first jobs as a teenager was in domestic service at Kingston. During the early years of the second world war she was delivering groceries to local homes for International Stores and on one such delivery to Clatford, she met her future husband Frank and they married in 1943. For the first three years of their married life they lived in converted shepherd's hut at Picket Piece before being allocated a council house. In war time she also worked in a munitions factory whilst Frank worked in agriculture and served in The Home Guard.

In 1945 their first son Brian was born followed by John in 1947. Sadly a tragedy was to befall the family when Brian was killed in a road accident aged just 18. When husband Frank passed away in 1982, Mavis spent a few years alone before marrying second husband Alf in 1986 who she met at the Peter Pan club where they enjoyed playing badminton. Sadly after 20 years of married life Mavis found herself a widow for the second time.

A talented seamstress undertaking alterations for Burtons menswear, making many of her own clothes and also her daughter-in-law Rachel's wedding dress, Mavis is renowned for her stylish fashion sense. She is very proud of her two grandsons Matthew and Benjamin.

In recent years Mavis has continued to live independently at home with the assistance of Buzzybees Home Support and Apex Care all of whom are extremely fond of her.

Due to social distancing, her celebrations were slightly different than originally planned but the centurion enjoyed the day all the same.