SPECIAL STORIES

Everyone who receives a 100th birthday or diamond wedding anniversary message has a special story to tell.

Two especially unusual stories are those of The Queen Mother, who received a birthday telegram from her daughter on her 100th birthday in 2000, and twin sisters Alice and Nellie Clark, who each received a telegram on their joint 100th birthday in the same year.
 
On 15 June 2000 twins Alice and Nellie Clarke celebrated their rather special 100th birthday. The United Kingdom's oldest twins received the traditional message from The Queen and hosted a garden party featuring a New Orleans-style jazz band and strawberries and cream.
 
The sisters had enjoyed interesting lives. They were born on 15th June 1900 in Hale, Cheshire to William, a wealthy Manchester wholesaler, and Adelaide Clarke. They grew up in Hale and were debutantes in the Cheshire Set. From an early age they travelled around the world on numerous cruises to Europe and even as far as Egypt.

Despite not needing any income, they decided to completely take over the running of one of their father's dress shops in Timperley, Altrincham. Alice and Nellie both used to drive, long before the introduction of driving tests and in an age when women rarely drove. With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 they kept themselves busy by becoming volunteer ambulance drivers in nearby Manchester.

Alice continued to regularly drive until her nineties, managing to earn her first
speeding ticket at the age of ninety-one.

The twins never married and lived independently until 1995, when they moved into a nursing home in Eccles, Manchester. They boasted that that they had never spent more than half an hour apart in their whole lives. When asked for their secret for long-life they advised people to be happy and behave properly.
 
Sadly, Nellie passed away on 12 April 2001, just two months before her 101st birthday, and Alice on 16 September 2001, at the grand old age of 101.

On 4 August 2000 Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother became the first member of the Royal Family to reach the age of 100 and to qualify for the traditional centenarian birthday message.

On the morning of her 100th birthday, The Queen Mother emerged smiling from Clarence House with her grandson The Prince of Wales by her side. After the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery had ridden past, the Queen Mother remained standing as the Band of the Irish Guards marched past playing Happy Birthday, with Grenadier Guards marching behind.

The Queen's 100th birthday card was then delivered to The Queen Mother by postman Tony Nicholls. The Queen Mother asked her equerry to open the envelope with his sword. The Queen Mother smiled as she opened the card, similar to those sent by The Queen to all centenarians, since The Queen had signed the card 'Lilibet', her childhood name.

After The Queen Mother's customary 'walkabout' in a golfing buggy, she and the Prince of Wales later set off for Buckingham Palace in an Ascot landau decorated with blue and yellow flowers (her racing colours) and The Queen Mother made an appearance on the balcony before enjoying a private lunch with many members of her family.

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother died in 2002, aged 101.