Many happy returns, Mrs Berry!

Monday 19 November 2018

Guernsey's oldest resident is celebrating another milestone birthday today, as she turns 109.

Ruth Berry was born Ruth Simon in 1909. She later married Ken Berry.

Apart from during the German Occupation of Guernsey during the Second World War, Mrs Berry has always lived in the island. During the War she was evacuated along with thousands of others, but it was of course the second world conflict Mrs Berry had seen, having been four years old when the Great War started in 1914, and just shy of nine when the Armistice was signed in 1918.

By the time Guernsey was evacuated in 1940, 30-year-old Mrs Berry was married with three young children. They travelled to England together, and you can read Mrs Berry's story here on Gillian Mawson's website which features a number of Evacuation stories. 

Pictured: Ruth Berry's Evacuaton story is told on Gillian Mawson's website here.  

Following her return to Guernsey in 1945, Mrs Berry was heavily involved in her local church and involved her children and grandchildren in her work in the community. This work included producing jam for which she has won awards, and which her son, Roger Berry, previously said she only stopped making in "recent years."

Mr Berry confirmed to Express that his mother would be marking her 109th birthday today and shared a new photo of Mrs Berry with us. He said the image (below) was taken in October at Summerland Nursing Home. Mrs Berry is seen cutting out stamps which she does to fundraise for charities.

"She has been involved in fund raising by cutting out and sending these away for several church charities for over forty years," said Mr Berry. "The main charity is Medical Missionary News which provides support for a number of hospitals. These are all in third world countries where very limited health services are provided. The used stamped envelopes are provided by many individuals and businesses in the Island."

Pictured: Ruth Berry in October 2018, aged 108, continuing her charity work. 

Speaking ahead of her 107th birthday in 2016, Roger Berry had said his mother was "in good health" but he said she was less active than she had previously been.

Mr Berry also previously said that there was no secret to his mother's long life, but she had always enjoyed foods including Guernsey and Sark butter, and that she had preferred goats milk to cows milk.

Long healthy lives appear to run in the Simon and Berry families, as one of Mrs Berry's sisters also lived to be older than 100.

While Mrs Berry is believed to be Guernsey's oldest resident, there is believed to be one other woman of 105 but data protection rules have previously meant this could not be confirmed. 

Pictured top: Mrs Berry pictured previously. Image from Gillian Mawson's website.