'No secret to growing old': Scarborough woman celebrates 106th birthday

Nora Gee was born in Lancaster on July 29, 1920.

She grew up in the city and spent many happy days in the Lake District climbing the peaks with her father, something which her daughter, Moira Cunningham, attributes to Mrs Gee’s longevity.

Moira said: "Mum always says that there is no secret to growing old, but she grew up at a time when you had to walk or cycle everywhere, and there was no junk food. She climbed Helvellyn at the age of eight!

"She's always lived a healthy lifestyle and never smoked or had lots of alcohol.

"But genetics play a part too, her sisters lived to be 102 and 104 and her granddads also lived into their late 90s. We're definitely a long-lived family!"

Mrs Gee first came to Scarborough in 1939 when Leeds City Teacher Training College was evacuated to the town, where she qualified to be a junior school teacher.

Her first job was in Manchester during the blitz, where she taught boys up to age 14. A job then opened up in Lancaster, and she moved back to the city to teach there.

She said: “In 1941, we had to register for National Service, but I wasn’t allowed to sign up as there was a shortage of teachers.

"So, I went into the National Fire Service part-time. I would work in the school during the day and operate the switchboard in the fire station at night.

"I became a leading fire woman and the women’s welfare officer for the whole division.

"We didn’t think twice about working so hard, because everybody pulled together.”

Nora continued an active life, and on a wartime cycling holiday to Arran in 1943, at Lochranza Youth Hostel she met husband-to-be Ron Cunningham, a Glaswegian of Irish descent. The couple married in 1944.

They moved to Glasgow where Mrs Gee taught in Maryhill, before heading north to take a headship in a tiny and remote highlands school.

They had two daughters, Lynne and Moira; after moving to Wiltshire and Somerset, Nora’s two sons - Andrew and Gavin - were born. Nora taught in Frome, and finished her career as head of remedial reading in Bath.

Nora lived in Scarborough in the 1980s & 90s but moved back to the West Country to live in Weston Super Mare and Bath, near her daughter Lynne.

After having a bad fall in 2021 aged 100 years, she came back to Scarborough, where her daughter Moira was able to look after her.

Nora also has five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

She celebrated her birthday surrounded by family members with afternoon tea and a glass of prosecco.