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May 2025 | Phonebox Magazine 31Mary was born in Glasgow on 9th April 1925. As a very young child, she and her family moved to Muswell Hill in London, and she went to Tollington High School for girls. Her hobbies were tennis and swimming.Aged 14, Mary was evacuated to Wolverton but returned home after only a few weeks as her mother didn%u2019t approve of the family she%u2019d been housed with!Mary%u2019s older brother, George, became a pilot and went to America. He died in 1944, aged just 22, saving another pilot who crashed on the aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious %u2013 for which he was awarded the George Medal posthumously.On leaving school at 16, Mary worked as a Clerk at Post Offi ce Headquarters in London, then at the Post Offi ce Savings Department in Holloway and also as a Clerical Offi cer in the Death Claims branch from 1947 to 1951.Whilst there, Mary met her future husband Jim, who was demobbed from the RAF in 1947. They married in 1950 in Muswell Hill and moved to digs in Reading. Mary continued to work in Central London as a Clerical Offi cer for the Ministry of Pensions from 1951 to 1953. She and Jim then relocated to Cheltenham, where they both worked for GCHQ.Mary gave up work when her eldest son, Simon, was born in October 1955. She had two more sons, Jeremy and Robert. Jim was posted to Germany, so the family relocated there for three years between 1959 and 1962.After returning to the UK, Jim had a second posting to Cyprus from 1977 to 1980. He retired in 1985; both he and Mary were very active in retirement, being involved with WRVS and Meals on Wheels, for example.In July 2015, Mary and Jim moved to Newport Pagnell to be looked after by their son, Jeremy, and daughter-in-law, Helen. Sadly, Jim passed away in 2016, aged 91, the couple having been married for 66 years. Mary has continued to enjoy life in Newport Pagnell, where she has been going to The Brooklands Centre for nearly ten years, and now attends four or fi ve days every week. She takes part in seated exercise classes and enjoys all the other activities on off er, as well as making many friends. Mary has three sons, eight grandchildren and four greatgrandchildren. She says she has lived such a long time due to being so well looked after, as well as having a snowball tipple every day in recent years!Brooklands Centre resident Mary Taylor celebrates 100Mary Taylor recently celebrated her 100th birthday with her friends and family at The Brooklands Centre in Newport Pagnell.