Elsie Morris was born on 11th February 1910, meaning that this coming Sunday, Elsie will be celebrating her 108th birthday.
Does this make her the oldest person alive on the Isle of Wight?
That was the question posed by her grand-daughter, Vanessa Whitewood recently on the Isle of Wight Heritage Group on Facebook.
OnTheWight said we’d do what we could to find out and are hoping that readers will be able to assist. Do you know someone living on the Isle of Wight who is older than Elsie? If so, please let us know in the comments section below or contact us directly.
Elsie Irene Morris
Elsie was born in the 11th February 1910 at Heath Farm Staplers. She is the third child of Maurice and Ada Sibbick and now the only surviving child.
In 1933, Elsie married Douglas Morris and had two children, Mary Susie and John.
Elsie and Douglas started married life at Ash Hill Farm, before moving to Merstone during WII. Vanessa tells us that Elsie used to travel on the train to Newport to help her parents and family run the family farm at Hunnyhill.
On to Kitbridge Farm
They moved to Kitbridge Farm along Forest Road and then moved again, this time to Dungewood Farm at Shorwell in February 1946.
Elsie lived here until she was 95 years old when she moved into Newport Residential Home, and has been resident there 13 years now.
A bit of a tomboy
Vanessa says,
“Gran was a bit of a tomboy when she was young and rode her horse ‘Ginger’ bareback on the farm.
“Her sister Mabel used to run a tea hut on Mersley Down and a coach company did moonlight tours. Elsie used to help her serving tea coffee chocolate and tobacco.
“Gran told me years ago she was going to live to be 100! Well she has certainly managed that.”
Domestic goddess
Vanessa went on to say,
“I spent a lot of time with Gran when I was a child staying at the farm in the summer holidays. She taught me to cook and everything she made was from scratch, cakes, pies and all meals. She made amazing pastry.
“There were no processed foods in her house. Everything was made with butter, lard, full fat milk and lots of sugar!”
You can’t milk and have long hair
The photos above show Elsie with the long hair which she could sit on when she was around 19 years old.
Vanessa says that Elsie had to have her hair cut by her sister-in-law, Dorie, when she was about 24, because when milking in the dairy the cow’s tails kept getting caught up in the pins she used to put it up.
The middle photo shows Elsie when she was 23 and the last is Elsie just two years ago when she was 106 years old.
Happy birthday
We hope you have a very Happy Birthday on Sunday Elsie, and wish you all the very best for the coming year.
