WHEN Evelyn Wood was born, King George V was on the throne and David Lloyd George was the Prime Minister.
There have been five monarchs, and countless Prime Ministers, during Evelyn’s lifetime. In the year of her birth the first radio broadcasts were made in the UK, the League of Nations was founded, and women under 30 had yet to have the vote.
Tomorrow Evelyn celebrates her 105th birthday. She will open a birthday telegram from King Charles - five years after receiving one from the late Queen, on her 100th birthday.
“Hard work and helping others,” is Evelyn’s secret to a long and healthy life. She was born on July 13, 1920 in West Bowling. Her parents were Albert and Olive Coulter and she had a brother, Jack. Albert was one of three brothers who all survived the First World War.
“We lived at the back of the shops on Manchester Road,” Evelyn recalls. “There was a big yard, I enjoyed playing there with my best friend, Rhoda. All the children played outside.”
Evelyn went to Ryan Street Primary then Woodroyd School. “I left school at 14, I was at Hallidays mill on the Monday morning,” she says. “It was alright until the war, then I worked in munitions. We worked with coils of wire, sticking wire through tiny slots.”
Evelyn later looked after her mother and father when they became ill. In 1940 she married her sweetheart, Percy Harold Wood, at St Stephen’s Church, West Bowling. Percy served with the Royal Artillary attached to the Durham Light Infantry and was involved in the D-Day landings. In 1945 he was with the British forces that liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
“I remember air raid sirens in the war. We just got on with it,” says Evelyn. In 1944 Evelyn and Percy’s daughter, Pauline, was born. Sadly, Evelyn’s mother died 10 days later, on Christmas Day.
After the war Percy worked in photograph engraving at the Telegraph & Argus. He died aged 53.
Evelyn worked at Parkside Mills. “I did burling and mending. I enjoyed every minute of it,” she smiles. “I had good friends there.” She enjoyed the cinema - “We went to the Carlton, Birch Lane, Towers Hall. Percy liked Westerns, I liked musicals” and reading: “I read all the Catherine Cookson books. I got them from the book stall at the old Kirkgate Market.” She was a keen knitter too, and knitted teddies for children in Africa.
Evelyn has two grandchildren, Andrew and Jane, and three great grandchildren: Jess, Harriet and Riley. She lived in West Bowling most of her life, later moving to Shelf, and for the past two years has lived at Springfield Care Home in Buttershaw, where there will be a special birthday afternoon tea today, with a singer. Tomorrow Evelyn will celebrate with family.
A very Happy Birthday, Evelyn, from the Telegraph & Argus!
