MUSSELBURGH centenarian Mary Anderson celebrated her 100th birthday with her favourite tipple – a glass of Baileys Irish Cream.

The great-great-grandmother raised a glass with family and friends at her birthday party in Drummohr Care Home, Wallyford, last Wednesday, during which live music, a singalong and buffet were enjoyed.

Her youngest son John, 66, who still lives at the family home on Macbeth Moir Road, Musselburgh, said: “It was a fantastic day. Marie McLachlan, activities co-ordinator at the care home, and the staff did us proud.”

Mary was also joined by her eldest son Alexander, 71, from Stoneyhill, and her daughter Linda, 70, who had travelled all the way from her home in Australia for the occasion.

Born at Cairds Row in Musselburgh on March 21, 1918, in the last year of the First World War, Mary was the oldest child of John and Annie Baptie, who had another daughter Georgina and son Alexander.

Mr Baptie was a miner a Monktonhall Colliery before being employed at Lowe’s market gardens in Musselburgh. Annie worked at Duncan’s chocolate factory in Edinburgh prior to getting married. The family moved to Mitchell Street and then Eskview Terrace.

Mary became a tailoress, gaining employment at Ewan Douglas bespoke tailors on Castle Street, Edinburgh, where among her duties was the difficult task of making cuffs for jackets.

When the Second World War broke out, Mary helped with the war effort, working in munitions at the former SMT garage in Musselburgh.

It was during wartime that she met and fell in love with Edinburgh soldier John Anderson after a chance meeting in the Borders village of Darnick.

She had travelled to Melrose by train for a day out with a friend when they spotted two handsome soldiers going into a grocer’s shop in Darnick. The young women phoned the shop from a telephone kiosk asking to speak to them.

Four weeks later, when John, who served with the Grenadier Guards in the Middle East, was on leave, he travelled to Musselburgh to ask Mary out to the pictures.

But she was busy at the munitions factory, so, playing his cards right, he asked his future mother-in-law to go instead!

Mary and John were married at the Inveresk Church Manse on October 23, 1944, and he was demobbed in 1945.

The couple set up home at Eskside East and welcomed their three children into the world. The family were the first to move into the new housing development which became known as ‘The Wimpeys’ in 1953.

Mary was a housewife, looking after the family while John worked with an Edinburgh coach building company before becoming a machinist at John Mitchell wood merchants in Leith. He worked for a time as a security guard at John Lewis and, prior to his retiral, got the chance to put his love of gardening into practice as a gardener at Loretto School.

The couple were active members of St Ninian’s Church, where Mary served as a Sunday School teacher and Guild member, and John, who passed way in 1991, was an Elder.

Mary is a grandmother of five, great-grandmother of eight and great-great-grandmother of one, with another great-great-grandchild due in August.

Her recipe for a long and happy life is “a little of what you fancy does you good”.