Miss Murdy celebrates her 100th birthday
photo by Northumberland Gazette
Miss Gladys Murdy is well known among Amble residents because she has been with us for a long time, formerly living in Warkworth, working in Amble and volunteering in the local community with Cubs and Scouts.
At a party on Friday February 26 at the Summerhill Retirement Home in Alnwick she celebrated her 100th birthday with friends, family and colleagues and received her telegram from the Queen.
When asked for her secret to long life she replied, “By keeping people in order. I have spent my life doing that.”
We know that to be true and we have all benefitted from her efforts. She was for many years clerk to Amble Town Council and Warkworth Parish Council, and both these institutions marked the occasion with gifts.
Amble Town Council gave her a framed picture of Prospect Place and a book, ‘In memory of the fallen’ which commemorates local people who served their country in the early 1900s. Warkworth Parish Council gave her a large bouquet of flowers.
Others paid their respects, Robert Arckless, said he learnt a lot from her in his early days as a fledgling councillor.
She talked of ‘my council’ and meant it. Tommy Hogg, whose father Robert Hogg was Miss Murdy’s boss at Carse and Goodger, spoke fondly of her. He said, “She has been in our life in one way or another over the years.
“She is a true character and what she didn’t know about Amble wasn’t worth knowing.”
Vivenne Dalgliesh
