Twins to celebrate 100 years of life in Yorkshire
IT WAS the year the Titanic was launched and King George V and Queen Mary were crowned at Westminster Abbey.
The year, 1911, also saw the birth of twins Winifred Rippon and Marjorie Woodcock, who today celebrate their 100th birthdays making them England’s oldest living twins and second oldest in the UK and the world.
Winifred’s son Stephen believes the key to their longevity may lie in their genes – their grandmother lived well into her 90s – as well as their healthy lifestyles. Neither smoked and they only had a drink at Christmas.
Mr Rippon said: “People go to gyms these days. But my aunt never had a car. My mother would walk on daily errands and be working in the house and helping neighbours. They didn’t sit and watch TV.
“They had a more restricted diet in the war years, whatever they ate wasn’t going to be bad for them, like a lot of packaged food, and both enjoyed swimming and cycling.”
The twins were born – Marjorie first and Winifred 12 minutes later – on August 27, 1911, in a row of terrace houses built by their grandfather in Hull Road, Withernsea.
Apart from three years during the Second World War, they have never lived more than 20 miles apart, their lives closely entwined, sharing their joys and troubles by letter and phone.
They married within months of each other. They used to shop separately but ended up choosing the same clothes and holidayed together with their families. Both were widowed in 1993.
Even now – although they don’t see each other as regularly as they did – they live just a few miles apart, Marjorie in a care home in Sutton and Winifred in her own east Hull home.
Today, however, they will be reunited at a birthday party at Sutton Methodist Church where they will be joined by 40 guests from as far away as Cornwall, as well as carers and friends.
Hopefully by then they will have received their birthday greeting from the Queen – due to arrive this morning by special delivery.
Their family don’t see them as identical, as some people do. Stephen, who lives in west Hull, said: “We see them maybe as having a likeness. My mother was active in the Methodist Church and had travelled, my Aunt was more of a home bird.
“They have always been close. Until Marjorie went into residential care they telephoned each other every morning.”
The pair had a happy childhood. The First World War bought visits from soldiers who were billeted in Withernsea, which they recall as a “source of fun and enjoyment”. Friends from Hull would come and stay for the summer, the men commuting to Hull by rail.
Mr Rippon said: “Their description of summer was idyllic; it was always sunshine, the beach was clean; they had a very happy childhood.”
They left school at 14 and worked in Withernsea Post Office, where their grandfather was postmaster. Winifred stayed there, while Marjorie moved to Marfleet Post Office.
Mr Rippon said: “They were responsible jobs. They used to help people fill in forms. My Mother knew Morse code because she was sending and receiving telegrams.”
In the 1950s Marjorie returned to Withernsea Post Office, working there until she retired.
The twins had married within months of each other – Marjorie to Bert Woodcock, who served in the RAF, and had two daughters, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Winifred married Ralph Rippon, a Merchant Navy officer. Together they had a son and daughter, four granddaughters and seven great-grandchildren. When her husband was posted to the Far East she followed, staying in Singapore till the Japanese invaded in 1942, when Stephen Rippon was just four.
“My mother had to get out quickly on a convoy which was under dive-bomb attack by the Japanese.
“It was a very fraught time, getting out safely and because of secrecy not knowing where my Dad was or whether he was safe or not. My mother chose to return to her family in Withernsea rather than see out the war in another country.
He added: “Basically their lives were family-orientated. All the usual domestic skills of cooking, baking cakes, making jam, sewing, knitting and ‘make do and mend’ were evident in their households which experienced wartime austerity.”
Today he says they are “more sleepy” – but are looking forward to seeing their beloved family from all corners of the country.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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