A long-time resident of Henleaze celebrated her 100th birthday with family and friends at the RAF Association Club.
Pauline Townshend (née Thomson) was born in Hotwells in 1924, at home at 5 Caroline Place. Though the house was long-ago demolished, the pub that once looked down this street, the Rose of Denmark, still stands. Pauline attended Hotwells National School and went on to work at the tobacco factory of Edwards, Ringer and Bigg on Redcliff Street. During the war she was called up for munitions work, making parts on a lathe for RAF aircraft at the small factory of Coventry & Jeffs near College Green on St George’s Road. She also undertook fire-watching duties. On one occasion an incendiary bomb landed on the family home, Pauline’s mother scooping it up in a bucket and depositing it in the street!
In 1946 she married Arthur Wood Townshend, who had been a Sherman tank driver with the Eighth Army, by then working for the Eagle Star insurance company in the city centre. Daughter Lesley was born the following year. The family lived on Hurlingham Road and Ashley Down Road before settling in Park Grove, Henleaze, in the early 1960s. Pauline has been in Henleaze ever since, and has never lived outside Bristol. A stalwart of Horfield Baptist Church, where Arthur was organist, she did various charity jobs, such as helping prepare meals for people living alone and working for the League of Friends at Southmead Hospital.
Reflecting on her celebrations on 22 July, which included a congratulatory card from the King and Queen, Pauline said, “I had a lovely 100th birthday party at the RAFA Club with family, friends and neighbours, and they did a wonderful job”.
Her grandson, Ashley, asked her what the secret was to reaching 100. She replied, “Work hard, be kind, and enjoy life as best as you can along the way.”