A LOCAL woman recently celebrated her 100th birthday.
Kilkeel woman Margaret Banford marked the occasion with a number of visitors and a party with family and friends at the Kilmorey Arms in Kilkeel on 22 May.
For her birthday, many people came to help her celebrate.
“Margaret has been blessed with visits from our local minister Rev W Bingham, Mourne Presbyterian Church; his assistant Mr E Hanna; Dr Ian McNie representing the Moderator of the General Assembly; Rev D A Mullan, Ballylinney Presbyterian Church; elders of Mourne Presbyterian Church, and many friends who have dropped in,” her granddaughter-in-law Kathryn Edgar said.
“Margaret had a gathering to celebrate her birthday in the Kilmorey Arms Hotel, Kilkeel, which was attended by her nearest and dearest friends and family, some of whom had travelled from Oz and England.”
Margaret was born in 1926 to David and Martha Boyd, who lived on Woodvale Road in Belfast.
As she got older, she worked in her grandmother’s Post Office on Woodvale Road. She went on to become a comptometer operator in Shorts and later continued in that job at Stormont.
Comptometers were a type of calculator that were operated by specially trained employees in business and accounting offices prior to the widespread use of electronic calculators and computers.
In June 1950, she married Gilmour Banford. They moved to Kilkeel a few years later and set up home on the Newcastle Road.
Margaret and Gilmour were blessed with two sons, Tom and Sam, and four grandchildren. The number of great-grandchildren Margaret has continues to grow.
In her younger years, Margaret was a bit of an entrepreneur, selling eggs to many friends and neighbours and supplying local shops with strawberries.
She was also very involved with her local Women’s Institute and was known for baking delicious treats for their various events.
Margaret loves to travel and has visited many places around the world. A favourite holiday memory of hers is going on a safari.
