Hull’s oldest resident celebrates turning 107
WHEN Irene Cox was born in 1915, Britain was one year into the First World War, women weren’t able to vote, and electricity in homes was still a faint light on the horizon.
Celebrating her 107th birthday yesterday, it’s fair to say the centenarian has seen more changes in the country than you could ever read about in a GCSE history textbook.
She’s so far lived through no fewer than 21 Prime Ministers and four monarchs.
Believed to be Hull’s oldest living resident, according to the Super Centenarian Society, Irene has lived in the same Avenues home since 1961.
She’s a mother of two, grandmother of seven, and great-grandmother of seven.
Arriving in Hull at the close of World War Two, the city was almost entirely flattened by bombs, and the retired office worker has since seen it built back up from the ground.
Her late husband, Arthur, had been sent away to fight and was one of the lucky few to return home despite being caught in a missile attack and several landmines.
“People always ask why have I lived so long,” Irene told the Mail.
“I don’t know why, but maybe it’s because I have a little glass of brandy every night.”
Reflecting back over her life so far, Irene said the one piece of advice she’d give to her 17-year-old self and to girls of the same age today was t o “stay in school” and “learn as much as you can”.
“I remember when women didn’t get to work before the war.
“Afterwards, we didn’t want to just go back to being a housewife.”
During the war, Irene left her office job and joined the LNER to work with the railways, being one of the first women to do so.
“By that time, all the men were called up so we had to go to the rescue.
“My husband, Arthur, was called up from the very beginning and he was in until the very end.
“He went to sea and he was torpedoed once, and mined twice.
“He had a pretty rough time, but he came out all right.”
She added: “We came to Hull from Hartlepool after the war. My husband’s job was transferred here.
“It was strange at first, but not for long – the people were very friendly. When I first came here, Hull was in absolute chaos.
“It was practically raised to the ground – it had been very, very heavily bombarded. Poor old Hull, there wasn’t very much of it left.
“But they soon got themselves together again and built it back up.”
Moments of history Irene remembers as though it were yesterday include taking refuge during air raids in the Blitz, the abdication of King Edward VIII and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, as well as the suffragettes and the vote being given to all women in 1928.
Moments that, to many of us, are just clips from history documentaries.
“I remember the Queen when she was a young girl driving trucks in the war,” she adds.
“Watching the jubilee was very nostalgic for me.”
The Queen herself has written to Irene several times in recent years – once to wish her a happy birthday on her 100th, and twice since her 105th.
However, her card was understandably yet to arrive on Friday afternoon, perhaps due to resting up following the previous weekend’s celebrations.
“The country has changed so much – it’s not the country it was,” Irene added. “Although maybe that’s very old-fashioned of me.
“I can remember first getting electricity in the house – before, we just had gas. We had the old tin bath in front of the boiler in the kitchen.
“When we first got electricity in the house we were all frightened of it. You used to have to plug in a light – there were no three-point plugs in those days.”
Despite this, the centenarian has come to embrace modern technology – she owns an Amazon Echo, a mobile phone, and has a Facebook account.
Irene celebrated her birthday surrounded by family and friends, including son David, 71, who flew in from Canada for the occasion, and daughter Anne, 82, who still cares for her.