Sheffield woman Evelyn Gregory celebrates 104th birthday

The nurse, wife and mother was born on October 24, 1913. Evelyn entered a world where the cinema was still a fairly recent innovation, the telephone was a novelty for the majority and Europe was yet to experience the horrors of the Great War.

Evelyn, who lives in Burnt Tree Croft - one of the Sheffcare chain of residential care homes - is the second of nine siblings, with five brothers and three other sisters.

Her father died young, leaving Evelyn’s mother to raise nine children on her own.

At just 17 years old, she passed her nursing exams and was posted in a mental institution in Huddersfield, the start of a nursing career that would continue for many years.

Later, Evelyn met and married George Gregory and they had a son, Malcolm, who sadly died at the age of just 57.

Following the death of George, Evelyn continued to live alone for many years.

Eventually, Evelyn moved to Burnt Tree Croft in 2009 where she has lived happily since.

Sylvia and Edna, now in their 90s, still visit Evelyn regularly, as well as conduct coach holidays of their own.

“They come on the tram and the bus,” Burnt Tree Croft clerk Lucy Lawson said.

“They’re still quite sprightly.”