CELEBRATIONS were held on Saturday to mark the centenary of boxing day birthday girl Violet Gill.

Beatrice Violet Gill (known as Vi) invited her friends, family and Deputy Mayor of Tavistock Mandy Ewings, to Crelake Nursing Home to mark her milestone birthday.

Born in Mary Tavy in 1915, Vi worked in domestic service until she married Archie Stanbury from Lydford in 1937, at the age of 21.

The couple moved to Tavistock where Archie worked as a carpenter. They lived on Exeter Street until Archie died in August 1969.

Vi met Fred Gill a few years later and they were married in the early 1970s. Fred was also from Tavistock, and worked as a foreman at various local quarries.

Vi lived in Greenlands with Fred until he died in 2000 – they were married for 27 years.

Vi’s son David Stanbury said: ‘She is on the lookout for her next husband and does quite like the owner of Crelake House – though his wife is very much aware of that!

‘She enjoyed reading and dancing when she was a bit younger. She lived on her own until she was 98 years old so she has only been at Crelake House for about 18 months – she has become a little more frail over the past couple of years.

‘She was one of five children and is the last living. Her father worked at the mine in Mary Tavy. She lived in Tavistock all her married life and Mary Tavy beforehand. She has two children from her first marriage, myself and my sister Hazel.’

l Picture by James Bird