100th birthday greetings for Constance

Constance Shaw turned 100 on Tuesday 26th August at Lawn Park Care Home, where the grand occasion was marked with a small family gathering and a birthday cake.

Son Bernard (70) said: “It was very nice. She had quite a lot of family around her. As well as a card from Queen, she also got a telegram off Iain Duncan Smith. It upset me!”

Constance was born in Hucknall, her maiden name was West and her father was a painter and decorator.

Bernard said: “She had three sisters - Annie, Ada and Marjorie and one brother George. When she was young she had a pony because my father had a pony trap and they would take trips to Calverton.

“She went to Hucknall National Church of England School, which she left at the age of 14 to work at the Barlock typewriter factory in Basford in Nottingham.”

Constance met her future husband when helping out at a Boy’s Brigade function where Bernard Shaw was a member. They were married in Linby in 1938, and they moved to Hucknall.

Bernard served with the Home Guard during World War Two and later worked at Rolls Royce as a technician. Their only child Bernard was born in 1943.

“She finished work when I was born, but then she worked at at shoe shop in Hucknall part-time in the late 1950s,” explained her son.

“She enjoyed reading romances. In the fifties and sixties she was very involved in the Rolls Royce Motor Club. They used to put car rallies around in Derbyshire. That was before they had laws stopping people racing around the countryside!”

A keen motorcyclist, Bernard once rode to Scotland with Constance in a sidecar.

Constance and her husband enjoyed going on holidays to the seaside and they had a caravan at Chapel St Leonard.

Her son said: “They enjoyed travelling around. It was a very happy marriage.”

Constance lived in Annesley Woodhouse for about 45 years.

Grandson Steven (46) said: “She was very independent. She only went into the home two months ago. She lived in her own home until then. She used to go into Nottingham on the bus well into her nineties. She always used to go clothes shopping in M&S!”

As well as Stephen, who lives in Sutton, she has grandson Lyndon (49), who lives in Skegby, and greatgrandchildren Alex (8) and Sam (6).

Her great nephew Kevin Flint, was the former detective chief superintendent of Nottinghamshire.

Bernard said: “She followed his career very closely. And she was very interested in the details of the various murder cases he worked on!”