Veteran RNLI fundraiser Anita celebrates 105th birthday at Thorp House care home
Lifeboat members from Wells honoured veteran RNLI fundraiser Anita Twine on her 105th birthday today <Dec 6>at Thorp House nursing home, in Griston, near Watton.
James Betteridge, a crew member from the north Norfolk lifeboat station, and RNLI press officer Jessica Curtis joined Mrs Twine for her lunchtime party and thanked her for her fundraising work.
Ms Curtis said: “'Anita fund-raised for the RLNI well into her 90s. We wanted to send her a card and the lifeboat members decided to personally give her the card along with a lifeboat teddy.”
Mrs Twine, who was entertained by music from Jersey Boys tribute Josh and enjoyed her favourite sausage casserole lunch, said: “This is so lovely, thank you for everything. You have all been so wonderfully kind and I will never ever forget this.”
Mrs Twine lived her early life in Southfields, London, and was educated at Fulham County School. She recalled that while her sister Dorothy passed her exams with flying colours and received a free place, her father Oscar, a headteacher, had to pay her school fees. “I always said Dorothy inherited the brains,” she said.
She worked at Barclays Bank, in Canon Street, London during the Blitz, before marrying her husband Percy during the war – “he was 6ft 2in and caught my eye” – and moving to Wimbledon where their only son Douglas was born.
Her husband’s work took the family to Sale in Cheshire and then Gloucester, followed by Worksop, in Nottinghamshire, where she became a hospital receptionist; They retired to Beckingham near Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire. Following several holidays to the north Norfolk coast they sold up and moved to Holkham, both working part time at Holkham Hall.
After Percy’s death Mrs Twine adopted a retired racing greyhound for company and moved to Wells-next-the-Sea to be closer to her circle of friends. Active in the RNLI and various social groups, she used to follow a darts team away on late nights, enjoying her favourite tipple, a gin and tonic, and was a common sight fund-raising in Wells well into her 90s. Her 100th birthday was a great event with many turning out to celebrate at a local pub.
A year later she went into a care home in Wells before moving to Thorp House.
Activities coordinator Marcia Hughes said: “Anita’s tip for living a long life is swimming and gin and tonic!”
