Lilian Morrison, who was born during the First World War and farmed with her late husband near Forfar, has died aged 105.
She was born in Auchenblae, a village once noted for its high number of centenarians.
Longevity seems to have run in the genes of the family. Her mother, Helen, lived until she was 96.
By coincidence, her mother’s sister, Isabel, married Carse of Gowrie farmer, Alf Smith, who lived to be 111 and one of Britain’s oldest people.
Lilian was born in Auchenblae to John and Helen Davidson. Her father was a ploughman before training as a stonemason.
She was educated in the village and left school aged 14 to begin work in service at the home of a local banker.
After a spell working in service in Laurencekirk, Lilian moved to Peebles to work with a family before returning to Auchenblae to look after her grandmother.
Her next appointment was at Slatefield Farm, Forfar, where she was employed to look after the farmer’s elderly wife.
There she met the farmer’s son, George Morrison, and fell in love.
Married life
The couple married at Dundee Registrar’s Office in June, 1938 went and on to have three of a family, Edith, Mary and George, known as Donald.
Together they raised a family at Slatefield, who all chipped in during the busy berry season.
Barrels of strawberries and raspberries were sent to jam factories in Dundee and Manchester and, in later years, to the canning factories of Lockwoods, Forfar, Smedley’s, Dundee, and Chivers in Montrose.
As retirement approached, George and Lilian built a cottage on the farm but the couple did not have many years there as George died aged 69.
However, Lilian lived independently at the cottage until she was 103 and it was only for her last 18 months there that she required a carer to call.
Donald said: “She was teetotal and it was only at her 90th birthday party when we opened a bottle of champagne that she had her first drink and quite enjoyed it.
“I suppose longevity is in the family genes but she was never on any medicine in her life until a few months before she died.”
In later life, Lilian was introduced to lawn bowling through her sister’s husband, Dave Urquhart of Meigle, and was a frequent player at Meigle bowling green in summer and at the indoor bowling in Arbroath in the winter.
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