Stanley celebrates 100th birthday with five generations of his family (From Bournemouth Echo)

Stanley celebrates 100th birthday with five generations of his family

3:00pm Thursday 10th January 2013 in News By Steven Smith

A CENTENARIAN who was born and raised in Bournemouth has marked his big birthday with five generations of his family.

Stanley Whitbread turned 100 on Tuesday and was surrounded by scores of family, who had travelled from across the country, to celebrate the occasion at St Bridget’s Residential Home in Talbot Woods, where he has lived for the past seven years.

Stanley received the customary card from the Queen to mark his century.

Having been raised in Bournemouth, he became a decorator and builder and married wife Lottie in the mid-1930s.

He worked in the trade before going off to fight in World War Two, seeing service across Europe, including France, Holland and Germany, with the infantry and Tank Corps.

Returning after the conflict, he continued in the building trade.

His son Allan, an only child, was born in 1938 and only got to know his father when he returned from war.

Allan said: “I remember him shouting through the letterbox when he came back from war. I got to know him when he came back, when I was about seven.”

Stanley has three grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren and three great-great grandchildren.

“He has always stayed in Bournemouth, although he did go to places like Portsmouth and Brighton looking for work.”

Allan said all of Stanley’s siblings had survived into their 90s. His sister Lydia Bennett, 96, was able to attend the party.

He added: “He ate meat, he smoked and he drank like a fish and he’s 100. He was just a guy who went to work every day and looked after his family. He has loved his life.”