Royal greeting for Soham care home resident Mary Theobald who has been smiling for 100 years

The twinkle in her eyes and and the smile on her face is a sign Mary Theobald has enjoyed just about every moment of the century she has lived, a milestone she celebrated last week.

Born Mary McCann in County Mayo in the west of Ireland, at 19 she moved to England. It was 1944 and the teenager looking for work found a country which was then still at war. It was also the year which marked the turning point in the conflict with Allied troops landing on the beaches of Normandy beginning the liberation of Europe from the Nazis

Mary found a job working in domestic service and she later recalled how she met her future mother-in- law on a bus. She was invited by the woman back to her home for tea to meet her two sons, one of whom, Derek, became her husband three years later when he came out of the RAF.

The couple, who had one daughter, Maureen, moved around East Anglia during the early years of their marriage as Derek worked in farming but rheumatoid arthritis forced him to look for less physical work and the family took domestic work in large households with Mary working as a cook and housekeeper and Derek as a butler and chauffeur. The last place they worked together as a couple was at Layham Hall near Hadleigh where in 1987 Derek died.

A year later Mary took up a post a Chippenham Park working for Eustace and Anne Crawley. Her daughter Maureen, 77, who now lives in Kentford, said: “She became like a member of the family there and had a great relationship with them all. She lived in a cottage on the estate which she loved.”

When she was 72 Mary decided it was time to retire. “The family didn’t want her to go but she told them I have to go,” said Maureen. She moved into a cottage in the village and became part of village life, chatting to all who passed by as she tended her garden, baking cakes and scones for her fellow villagers who she always greeted with a smile.

She stayed in Chippenham until she was 98 when she moved first to Ness Court in Burwell and last May became a resident at Townsend Manor in Soham, where on Tuesday, April 15, she hosted a party to celebrate her 100th birthday. Among the guests were members of her family who made the trip from Ireland and her long-time friend Margaret Mason.

And among the many cards and presents she received was a royal birthday greeting from the King and Queen.

“She said she had the best day ever and that she was a very lucky Mary,” said Natalie Fraser, from Townsend Manor.