A WOMAN from Downton who was born in the year of Scott’s expedition to the South Pole celebrated her 105th birthday on Friday.

Fay Dobson was born in Harpenden, the fourth of five children, in 1912 and her father’s work took the family to live in various parts of England.

The first of many trips abroad was in 1931 when Fay went by ship with an English family to the Falkland Islands to look after their two young boys for a year.

In 1936 she was married to Alan and over the next decades they lived in places as varied as the Orkneys, Sierra Leone, Gibraltar and Melbourne.

They moved to Downton in 1986 to be near some of their family and Fay became involved in the church life of St Laurence’s including Mothers’ Union, as well as helping at Barford Day Centre and Good Companions, and being a member of the WI. She has always enjoyed walking and gardening, which she was able to do while living independently right up to the age of 98 when she moved to Ashley Grange.