Amazing ex-Mansfield midwife shares secrets to long life on her 106th birthday

Born in 1916, when most workers earned less than £1 per week, Edith Pearson has lived through two world wars, two pandemics and numerous epidemics, and has seen five monarchs, 22 prime ministers, nine Popes and 19 US presidents.

Amazing Edith has experienced an extraordinary life, and much of it was recalled when a birthday party was thrown for her at the Springwater Lodge care home in Calverton, where she is currently living.

She also shared many of her secrets to longevity, which include “a good constitution”. “My father taught me to eat slowly and chew 30 times!” she revealed.

Gumption is also on her list of attributes, as son Jon explained. “Nothing has ever seemed to faze her,” he said. “She is always looking forward, and if there is a problem, she tries to solve it, not dwell on it."

That’s probably one reason why, several years after retiring, Edith received a phone call to say a midwife was needed in Pakistan.

"So, she and dad, also in his 70s, went to Faisalabad for three months to help set up a maternity unit in a new hospital,” said John. “They found it an amazing experience.”

Incredibly, Edith only became a nurse by chance – and because she was bored!

John explained: “At the age of 47, her daughters, Ann and Jill, had left home to go to college, and she got itchy feet.

"So she went for a job as a seamstress at King's Mill Hospital in Sutton. They said the job had gone but that they were looking for nurses.

"She qualified as a nurse and became a midwife, working from King’s Mill, Worksop and Bassetlaw hospitals until she was 68.”

Chance also played a part in Edith meeting her husband of 69 years, miner Wilf. She went to the old Mansfield Midland station one day in 1932 to meet a cousin arriving from Mablethorpe on a train.

She didn’t realise that the Mablethorpe train actually came in at Mansfield’s Central station instead. But while at the Midland version, she bumped into Wilf and, seven years later, in December 1939, they married.

It took seven years because she was, legally, too young to marry any earlier. But when she did, she had to give up her job as a book binder at Linney’s stationers because, at that time, married women were not allowed to work.

Edith Mary Pearson (nee Lane) was born and brought up at number 11 Goldsmith Street in Mansfield during the First World War. Her elderly father was a lay preacher with strict Victorian values.

She went to Rosemary Street Primary School and, after passing her 11-plus, she moved on to High Oakham School on Nottingham Road. Her dad made her leave at the age of 14, citing that “girls don’t need educating”.

After her marriage, she and husband Wilf lived on Bagshaw Street in Pleasley, where he was working at the pit.

After a year, he was called up to the Royal Navy and saw service during the Second World War in the Caribbean, the Far East and the Mediterranean.

When he returned, he worked at Clipstone Colliery before becoming chief mechanical engineer at Ollerton Colliery between 1955 and 1972 when he took redundancy to end 41 years in the coal industry. Wilf’s main job until his retirement was as a workshop technician at Shirebrook School (now Academy).

Edith and Wilf had three children. As well as son John, there is Ann, who is now 81 and lives in Bothamsall with husband Eddie, and 78-year-old Jill, who lives in Sussex with husband Ken.

John, who is 75, followed his dad into the Navy after leaving Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Mansfield and gaining a university degree. He spent 25 years there, leaving as a lieutenant commander, and lives in Hampshire with wife Su.

Edith and Wilf, who also have seven grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren, lived in various places, including Clipstone and Bothamsall, but spent most of their time in Ollerton at addresses such as Savile Row and Hardwick Drive before settling at St Peters Close in 1988.

They moved to a retirement village at Markfield Court in Leicestershire in 2004 before Wilf died, aged 91, five years later.

John said: “My mum continued to enjoy the camaraderie and social life at Markfield Court and only left in April to go into hospital with a chest infection.

"She is now at Springfield Lodge, less than 15 miles from where she lived for 90 years, and they laid on a splendid 106th birthday party.”

Many family members and friends enjoyed the party, including great grandchildren whose ages range from ten months to 40 and who are spread far and wide around this country and also Australia and New Zealand.

Also there were niece Pamela and nephew Robert, the children of Edith’s younger sister, Hilda, plus four half-brothers and a half-sister.

"She has had a great family life,” said John. “My dad always used to say: family is what it is all about.

"And longevity is in her genes. Her mother, brother and sister all lived to be over 90.”

Holidays and hobbies have also played a key part in her long life. John said: “Her father insisted they had two holidays per year, and her idea of heaven is still Bournemouth beach. She went there twice last year, as she has done for the last 40 years, and even went up in a hot-air balloon there at the age of 98!”

Edith’s hobbies have included cycling (she often made the 70-mile trip to Mablethorpe by bike), and playing bowls, petanque, bingo and cards.

“She is so competitive and doesn’t like to lose,” said John.

A winner in every sense of the word is our Edith. For 106 years and still counting.