mmg.com.au

Marjorie Hargreaves is still able to recite all the words of her school song.

It is no mean feat, as she left school well over 80 years ago.

‘‘I don’t know why I still remember it,’’ she said.

Today, Marjorie celebrates her 100th birthday.

She was born Marjorie Bell on February 6, 1912, to Eliza and Frederick Bertram Claude Bell, in Adelong near Tumut in NSW.

As a child, she went to primary school in Cunningar, NSW.

‘‘It took of an hour (to get to school), because we had to walk,’’ Marjorie said.

High school took even longer to get to, as it was in Murrumburrah, the next town away.

‘‘We had to ride six miles (9.6km) on bicycles on a country road,’’ Marjorie said.

After three or four years of high school, Marjorie left to work with her parents in their market garden for a few years, before training to be a nurse.

After training at Royal North Shore Hospital, she took on a job at Tumut hospital.

‘‘I did a lot of night work and a lot of setting up the theatre,’’ Marjorie said.

‘‘I had to sterilise everything. I did it in the early morning and would have it done for eight o’clock for the doctors.’’

It was nursing that led her to meeting the man who would become her husband.

She had stopped nursing after five or six years, but was filling in at Tumut hospital when Richard Hargreaves was brought in as a patient after injuring himself playing football.

‘‘I had retired. They rang and asked me to come back. That’s why I was there,’’ she said.

Marjorie remembers Richard’s sisters going to visit him while he was in hospital.

What she remembers most about them is their long red hair.

‘‘It was hard to believe they were his sisters,’’ she said.

‘‘I thought they were his other girlfriends.’’

The couple married in June 1941 and went on to have three children — David, Bronwyn (Eddy) and Ross.

Richard served in the defence force in World War II, and while he was overseas in New Guinea, Marjorie went home to her parents’ house in Cunningbar.

While Richard was away, the couple used to write to each other, with Richard trying to tell her where he was in secret codes.

Marjorie, however, could never quite work out what he meant.

‘‘They weren’t allowed to say where they were,’’ she said.

While he was away, Richard asked Marjorie to send him a photo of her.

She had one professionally taken and sent it to him.

Marjorie still has that photo in her collection today.

When Richard returned from the war he went back to working in banks, including a stint as bank manager in Mathoura from 1962 to 1966.

After Richard retired in 1974, the couple moved to Thirroul in NSW.

Marjorie worked at the neighbourhood house for about 30 years, giving emergency relief to people who needed it.

She was also heavily involved in her church over the years — first the Methodist Church and, later, the Uniting Church.

After Richard died in 2001, Marjorie continued to live at Thirroul until 2007 when she moved to Wharparilla Lodge in Echuca.

World War II was not the only war Marjorie has lived through in her lifetime, however.

While Marjorie doesn’t remember much of World War I, because she was only aged two when it started, Marjorie does have one memory of it.

‘‘I remember one of my uncles coming home from the war,’’ she said.

Marjorie was also born before motor vehicles were the norm.

She can remember her father having a truck to take the vegetables to market, and can also recall an old boyfriend who had a car.

‘‘I remember the telephone being put in. I would have been an adult,’’ she said.

Marjorie also lived through the time of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation and even travelled to Canberra to see her when the Queen visited Australia in 1954.

Just recently, Marjorie received a certificate from the Queen congratulating her on her 100th birthday.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu, Governor-General Quentin Bryce and several local politicians also sent Marjorie congratulations on the milestone.

When asked the secret to her long life, Marjorie said she didn’t really have one.

‘‘Just day after day,’’ she said.

As for turning 100 — ‘‘I didn’t stop to think about it. It just came’’.

‘‘I’ve had a good life.’’

Marjorie celebrated her century milestone with family and friends at a morning tea yesterday.