FAMILY members have paid tribute to a matriarch of the Romany Gypsy community who would have celebrated her 100th birthday last week.

Mary Bond, affectionately known as ‘Queen of the Gypsies’, passed away in January 2015, aged 94.

Hundreds attended her funeral at St Clement’s Church in Poole, with a cortège that included three horse-drawn carriages.

Speaking on what would have been Mary’s 100th birthday, last Wednesday, daughter Rosie Jeff told the Daily Echo: “She was one in a million. She never complained. She would help anyone.

“She wasn’t just lovely on the outside, she was lovely on the inside and had a heart of gold. She would help anyone in the family. It wasn’t just my children, it was everybody – she was a mother to everybody.

“My mum was a good person. She never had a bad bone in her body and she brought us up to abide by the law. There are not many built like her today.”

Mary was born in Sherborne in a bender tent on September 9, 1920, to parents Caroline Hughes and Johnny Cooper. Growing up, she worked the fields with her mother and father, taking on a variety of farming tasks.

She met her husband Harold Bond, a dairyman, while the family were staying in Blandford and they would go on to marry in January 1939 at the parish church.

Mary raised two sons and two daughters largely on her own while her husband was away in the army.

The family lived in Blandford for many years before moving to Poole.

She would often travel to Bournemouth with a friend to sell lucky heather and charms. She worked hawking lace, heather, scrap metal, rabbit skins and more, travelling as far afield as Winchester.

Mary loved cooking, often making bacon and meat puddings in a two-gallon pot. She was a regular at the Great Dorset Steam Fair and the Epsom Derby.

There is an image of the family in Poole Museum, highlighting their long history in the borough. She died a great great-grandmother

“My mum was beautiful on the outside and the inside,” added Rosie. “She would help anyone who needed it.”

Mary’s son Jimmy Bond said: “Me and my wife Lorna, grandchildren Victoria, Arthur and Matthew, great grandsons Arthur-James and Jimmy and new great grandson Matthew-James love and miss her deeply and talk of her memories every day and always will till we meet again.”