100-year-old Bearsden great-granny gets set to celebrate milestone birthday

A great-granny is getting set to celebrate her 100th birthday next week and will be honoured in a very special way.

Maude Roberts will turn 100 on Monday 5 February with the Lord Provost and the King’s representative in Scotland, his Lord Lieutenant, coming to address Maude on her special day who has four children, eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

She started life in London in 1924, and joined the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAFs) when she was 17 and was on Anglesey when she met her future husband William Roberts who was a Scottish Royal Air Force pilot who was originally from Glasgow.

The pair got married in 1945 and moved up to Scotland around 1946. They started out in Kelvindale before moving to Drumchapel, Erskine and then finally settled in Bearsden in the mid nineties.

Throughout her life, Maude has worked in a number of jobs after leaving school at fourteen. She worked as a telephonist receptionist in London and then her friend was joining up to the WAAFs so she agreed to join up as they both liked the blue uniform.

She trained as a telephonist and was posted to RAF Mona. In Glasgow, she worked at the Ca d'Oro building in Glasgow for many years as well as the bakers in Drumchapel before working for the social work department of Glasgow Corporation.

Maude's daughter Carol describes her as the "matriarch" of the family as she has always made sure that they are together and close to each other. Her main hobby was lawn bowling which she loved doing. Maude bowled in Drumchapel and also bowled for Partickhill - being part of the team which won the West of Scotland Lawn Bowling Championships in 1993.

At nearly 100-years-old, Maude has still got a very good memory and can tell you stuff from her childhood. She used to holiday in Australia at her daughters and fondly remembers places she visited in Sydney.

She wouldn't really say there is any secret to reaching the milestone age apart from the bowling keeping her very fit and active for many years with her being described as a very friendly that a lot of people know.

Speaking about her mum, Maude's daughter Carol said: "She is the life and soul of the family and as I say kept the whole family going. We used to visit her house for Sunday dinners and she would cook full roast dinners and apple pie."