St Andrews woman Gertrude Cuthbert, who celebrated her 104th birthday earlier this year, has died.
A resident of Gibson House Care Home in the town centre and one of Fife’s oldest residents, Middlesex-born Mrs Cuthbert retired to St Andrews with her late husband, Robert, more than 50 years ago.
Born and raised in West Drayton, she lived mostly in Uxbridge before emigrating to Canada as a teenager with three of her sisters.
One of a family of nine she had six sisters and two brothers she worked as a housekeeper for a family in Montreal for many years. Her last surviving sister died in Canada several years ago at the age of 102.
While in Canada she was to meet her husband-to-be, a wireless operator in the Merchant Navy, who originally hailed from Dunfermline.
On September 3, 1939, Mrs Cuthbert and two of her sisters were on board the Athenia, which became the first civilian casualty of the second world war. The Cunard passenger liner was sunk without warning off the west of Scotland by a German submarine on the opening day of the hostilities, the captain believing it to be an armed merchant cruiser.
The liner was carrying evacuees from Liverpool to Canada and Mrs Cuthbert and her sisters, along with around another 1000 passengers, had to be rescued by several British destroyers, freighters and other vessels. They were taken to Glasgow before later boarding a warship, which took them back to Canada.
The following year, she married Robert and they travelled widely over the years.
They stayed for varying periods in several countries, including Bermuda, Jamaica and Sri Lanka, until they came to live in St Andrews in the 1950s. Mr Cuthbert died in 1979.
Mrs Cuthbert resided in Scooniehill Road for many years until moving into the Gibson House residential home in Argyle Street just over six years ago.