11:34am Saturday 4th July 2009
By Hannah Baker
When Florrie Baldwin was born there were few cars on the roads, radio was being invented and the First World War was 18 years away.
The 113-year-old great-great-grandmother, who lives in Pudsey, became the oldest person in Europe this week following the death of a woman in Italy, also aged 113.
Mrs Baldwin was born in Hunslet, Leeds, on March 31, 1896. Some of her earliest memories include the Siege of Mafeking during the Second Boer War in 1899 and Queen Victoria’s visit to Leeds Central Station.
The supercentenarian (someone who has reached the age of 110) grew up in a Victorian terrace with her two brothers and five sisters and can remember milk being delivered to their home by horse and trap in churns before being ladled into jugs .
She has lived through 27 prime ministers and six monarchs and shares the year of her birth with Henry Alling-ham, the First World War veteran and oldest verified living man in the world.
Her grandson David Worsnop, 62, put her long life down to “dogged determination” and said apart from being slightly hard of hearing and suffering poor eyesight, she remained in good health.
“She’s a very independent lady and strong-willed,” he said. “She is as fit as a fiddle and takes no medication whatsoever.”
Mrs Baldwin was employed as a clerical worker at Geo Brays Engineering in Leeds for more than 50 years.
“They were very reluctant to let her go and kept her on until she was 75,” said Mr Worsnop. “When she left they had to employ three people to do her job.”
Mrs Baldwin married painter and decorator Clifford Baldwin in 1919 and lived in the Hyde Park area of Leeds. Following her husband’s death in 1973, she lived alone until the age of 105, when she moved to Radcliffe Gardens Nursing Home in Pudsey.
Mrs Baldwin has one daughter, two grandsons, six great-grandchildren and four great-great-grandchildren. She was officially recognised as the oldest woman in the UK in 2007 when she was presented with a certificate by officials from the Guinness Book of Records.
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