Happy 100th for league member

Barbara Gillies’ 100th birthday was celebrated by the Victoria League on Tuesday with an afternoon tea function that attracted league members from as far away as Invercargill.

League president David Crooke said Mrs Gillies was believed to be the first Dunedin branch member to reach 100.

Born in Rangiora, her father, a pilot, died in an air accident when she was four, so she was brought up jointly by her mother and an aunt.

She and her late husband Doug had four sons and a daughter.

Mrs Gillies still plays the organ for services at St Michael’s Anglican church, something she says she has done for more than 40 years.