Daphne Green celebrates landmark 100th birthday in Outwell

In 1925 – the year Fenland woman Daphne Green was born – the jazz era was in full swing and John Logie Baird successfully transmitted the first television pictures.

Since then, Daphne, who marks her landmark 100th birthday today, has seen so many inventions, including witnessing space travel and the dawn of the computer age.

Daphne, who lives with her daughter Patricia Carr and son-in-law Michael in Outwell, was born in Marshland St James, the second child of Violet and Cecil Clarke of The Smeeth.

She was married to husband Walter ‘Wally’ Green, and the couple had their daughter Patricia. Wally sadly died in 1999.

They lived for many years in Wisbech, where Daphne worked in the canteen at what was Spillers, now Nestle Purina.

Daphne’s only granddaughter, Melanie Webb, said her grandmother loved ballroom dancing, although she went with friends to tea dances at the Queens School and the Braza Club in March, as Wally was not a dancer.

She was also a member of the Wisbech branch of the St John Ambulance and helped out at numerous community events, including the weekly speedway racing when the town had a stadium.

“She really loved the camaraderie of being part of the St John Ambulance, she is a very kind and caring person, and she loved doing things for the community,” said Melanie, who is married to Nick, and has two daughters, Eleanor and Charlotte – Daphne’s great-granddaughters.

The family celebrated Daphne’s big day with a meal out at the Crown Lodge Hotel in Outwell at the weekend and then with a little family get-together on her actual birthday.

Melanie said: “I don’t think she has a secret to a long life, she has just been lucky and blessed with good genes. Sadly, her two brothers and sister have passed away, and so she is the last one.

“Her parents didn’t live particularly long lives; her dad died in the 1960s, and her mum lived to be in her eighties, so she is the first one to live so long.”