Retired schoolteacher Muriel given the 'royal treatment' by friends and family as she turns 100

Retired schoolteacher Muriel Crowder turned 100 on June 12. Throughout the weekend her family gave her ‘right royal’ celebrations to mark her birthday, with two parties. In addition a peal was rung at Odiham Church where she and late husband Gordon were married in 1947.

The peal was rung on Saturday and was organised by granddaughter Emily Crowder and fiancée Andrew Mills, who are both bellringers. The peal involved 5,100 changes and was completed in just under three hours. It was the first full peal rung at All Saints’ church in Odiham for over 20 years and attracted a number of local people to listen.

Muriel later returned to Upper Farringdon near Alton, where she currently lives, for a lunchtime party. This was for local Farringdon residents and parishioners of the local church, also called All Saints’, which Muriel regularly attends. It was held in the garden at the home of daughter Judith Craig and son-in-law David.

The following day, her 100th birthday, afternoon tea was enjoyed by 80 family members and friends at Hook House Hotel, in Hook - the village where she and husband Gordon, raised their family of two, Ian, 73, and Judith, 70. Muriel also spent much time over the weekend opening almost 100 cards from well-wishers for this wonderful achievement.

She said: “I feel so moved and privileged to have all this love and goodwill from so many people,” said an emotional Muriel. “It has been a wonderful weekend and I have been so happy to have so many members of our family around to enjoy my birthday with me.”

She says she can hardly believe that she has reached the magic ‘century’.

“I really don’t feel that old. I think back to all that has happened in my life but it sometimes seems like just yesterday that I was a teenager and when I met my husband Gordon. We had a wonderfully happy life together in Hook.”

Muriel was asked if there was a secret to reaching a 100. She said: “Not really, but I do think it’s important to look on the bright side and be kind to everyone. We’ve also always eaten healthily, drunk in moderation and have been sustained by our Christian faith.”

Muriel and Gordon were a much-loved and respected couple at Hook, where schoolmaster Gordon was for 66 years a Lay Reader at St John’s Church. They moved to Hook following their marriage and lived at The Gables, in London Road, until Gordon sadly died aged 93 in 2016.

Muriel latterly moved to a ‘granny annexe’ at her daughter’s home in Upper Farringdon, where she continues to live independently but under the caring eye of her family. She also often stays with son Ian and daughter-in-law Hilary at their home near Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire.

Muriel was born in London to Helen and watchmaker Albert Hamilton, the youngest of four children. In 1927, the family moved to Odiham where they ran a confectioner and tobacconist shop as well as a workshop for her father’s watch and clock making business.

In October 1940, a German aircraft dropped bombs on Odiham village which destroyed the family home and the shop, which was located on the corner of the High Street and Church Street, killing Muriel’s mother. The spot is marked today with a blue plaque on the wall of the property which has since been built on what was for some years a vacant plot of land. Helen Hamilton’s name is remembered on the village War Memorial.

“That was a disastrous moment for the family,” Muriel recalled. “I was working in the telephone exchange which was in the Bury, when the bomb fell. I ran round the corner into Church Street to tell my parents that I was OK but found the street full of rubble and our home had gone.” Her father survived.

She continued: “Dad was looking for Mum and when it was confirmed that she had been killed, it was the first time I saw a man cry – Dad and I sobbed our hearts out.”

Her father eventually re-married, resuming his watchmaking business in King Street, Odiham.

Muriel and her father were temporarily put up by Muriel’s older sister Ida and husband Harold, who ran a garage and filling station in nearby North Warnborough. While there she met Gordon who was stationed at RAF Odiham during the War. Gordon left the RAF in 1946 to train as a schoolteacher.

Muriel’s has five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. She also has a growing step-family with six step-grandchildren and five step-great-grandchildren.