St Peter's Church bells at Farndon to ring 100 times to mark resident's 100th birthday

Church bells will ring out a hundred times on Monday to mark the 100th birthday of a resident.

Barbara Greaves-Osborn, who has lived through five UK sovereigns and 25 prime ministers, celebrates her 100th birthday.

To mark the milestone, St Peter’s Church in Farndon, where she lives, will be ringing the church bells 100 times.

Barbara was born in Rugby but moved to West Bridgford with her parents in 1934.

She was one of the first women to be employed at Motive Power Railways and quickly achieved a higher role as personal secretary to the motive power superintendent, who became her first husband, Harry Greaves.

Mrs Greaves-Osborn said: “I married during the war in 1944. Those days my parents were very strict and my father wouldn’t give me permission until I was 21. So I turned 21 on a Monday and I got married the following Saturday.

“I think Harry was the love of my life. I loved him as soon as I saw him, I loved him so much.”

“When he asked me to go out with him I was over the moon, he made me feel like that, all those years.

“Even after being married for over 20 years, if during my lunch time at work I bumped into him without expecting my heart would beat just like it did when I was 18 and first met him."

She retired at the age of 55 as the PA to the telegraph and signal engineer in Cambridge.

Through her life she had a number of different hobbies including singing in choirs, ballroom dancing and fencing competitions.

As a fan of travelling and curious about the world in the 1970s Barbara went with a friend on a cruise, which started her around the world journey.

On her first solo cruise she met her second husband, Reginald Osborn ­— the man at table number 27.

The two went for a walk the next day in Amsterdam and later Reginald told Barbara that when she touched his hand, he knew he was going to marry her.

After the trip, the two kept in touch and would speak on the phone three to four times a day. Reginald would send flowers from London to her house in The Meadows, Nottingham and continuously ask her to marry him.

“I always said no, it’s too soon. Within three to six months he sold his house and bought one on the corner from me.

“I kept him waiting eight years to marry me, but we moved in together within a year.”

The two used to go on cruises three to four times a year, travelling the world.

Reginald, who was ten years older than Barbara, died at the age of 91.

Barbara had two voluntary jobs until she was 93 ­— one at the front desk at Newark Hospital and at the gallery in Newark Town Hall.

She said: “I never felt that I was getting old. I can’t believe I’m 100. The time has gone on and life is just so interesting, people are so interesting.”

Barbara is described by her neighbour John Jackson as being “sharp as a pin”, as she is still healthy and is a woman full of life.

She will be celebrating her 100th birthday with Reginald’s son Michael and his family and some of her closest friends at a restaurant in Bottesford.