A woman is celebrating her 100th birthday.

The Comet: Monica Bird with her card from Her Majesty the Queen.Monica Bird with her card from Her Majesty the Queen. (Image: Archant)

A woman is celebrating her 100th birthday

Monica Bird, who spent more than 70 years living in Letchworth GC, has reached her 100th year, and spent the day at home in Welwyn GC.

Mrs Bird was born in Hitchin on February 13, 1914, after her parents had come down from Nottingham to start a greenhouse boiler installation business in the town.

In the 1930s they moved to Letchworth GC, where Mrs Bird lived up until December 2012, when she moved to Elizabeth House Care Home in Welwyn GC, where she now happily resides.

It was in 1937 in Letchworth GC that she married her husband, David Bird.

Mr Bird was the son of Frank Bird, one of Letchworth GC’s early residents who was instrumental in the building of the 1910 Bank House in Station Place where Barclays Bank still operates today.

Her son, Michael Bird, who lives in Welwyn Village said: “My mother was a very active member of the community in her younger years and a big entertainer. She would have parties with cocktails and she had a lot of friends, although she has outlived them all. She would always dress accordingly, even in her last visit to the Ascot seven years ago. And she liked her glass of scotch at 6pm.”

Mrs Bird also has two grandchildren, Rosemary and David, and four great grandchildren, Ethan, Anneliese, Alana and Amelia.

Mr M Bird said: “It was a lovely day. My mother was in very good fettle and she had lots of her family around her. My son came down from Edinburgh, my daughter was there who lives nearby and two of her great grandchildren came after school, as well as many neighbours. All the staff came in as well which was very nice. We made a cake for her and for the rest of the residents at the home.”

She has been a member of Letchworth Golf Club for the last 83 years, having won a Cup at the age of 20 in 1933 and was Lady Captain of the Club for the two consecutive years of 1952-53.

Mrs Bird regularly attended the Royal Enclosure at Ascot and the Queen’s Millennium Celebration in 2000.

Mrs Bird has always been a devoted family person having nursed her mother, Rose, for 30 years when she suffered from arthritis and her father, Percy, for the last 15 years of his life after a leg amputation.