Margaret Lambourn celebrates 108th birthday in Tauranga

Margaret Lambourn celebrating her 108th birthday with her family, from left, Nick Taylor (nephew), Andrew Lambourn (son), Michael Lambourn (son) and Danny Lambourn (grandson). Photo / Alex Cairns

Margaret Lambourn, who decoded messages for the Royal Air Force during World War II, celebrated her 108th birthday on Monday.

Lambourn’s family, who believes she is one of Tauranga’s oldest identities, say she is still sharp, has a remarkable memory, and has lived a “full and interesting” life.

But after a big few days of celebrating her birthday with loved ones, she was too tired to answer questions from the Bay of Plenty Times so her family stepped in.

Lambourn was surrounded by friends and family as they gathered around the table for a celebration complete with a beautiful cake and “bottomless tea” at Hodgson House Lifecare and Village, where the “birthday girl” has lived for the past two years.

Lambourn’s love and talent for music, especially the piano which she was still playing “only six months ago”, was the first thing that came to the minds of her nephew, Nick Taylor, and youngest son, Andrew Lambourn.

Taylor laughed as he recalled Lambourn’s 107th birthday celebration the year before, where Lambourn had been playing music for the family.

“We looked on Spotify and we were playing stuff from the 1940s, we put that on and Margaret asked: ‘Have you got anything a bit older’?”, Taylor said.

Taylor agreed that “staying really involved” like Lambourn with her love for music was a value his aunt had always taught the family.

Alan and Margaret Lambourn on their wedding day. Photo / Supplied

Lambourn was born on July 3, 1915, in Leeds, England, and came from a family of nine children. She married her late husband Alan Lambourn in 1938.

“But she’s the survivor,” Taylor said. “It’s not very often someone’s lived through both world wars.”

In fact, Lambourn decoded messages for the Royal Air Force during World War II, and Taylor said she had seen many changes in her lifetime.

“They never had electricity or running water in their house; they used to have to get the water out of the well and take turns bringing the water in.”

Margaret and Alan Lambourn moved to Kuwait in the Persian Gulf in 1950.

“She taught herself to speak Arabic, which is not easy,” Taylor said.

Margaret and Alan had three children, Michael, Susie, and Andrew, and the family boarded a ship and moved to New Zealand in 1972, settling in Kerikeri, where Andrew Lambourn said she “taught herself to make wine”.

Alan and Margaret Lambourn retired to Tauranga in 1989, moving to Greenwood Park retirement home in Welcome Bay.

“She was one of the foundational members, one of the first ones who ever lived at Greenwood Park,” Taylor said.

Lambourn and her sister, Taylor’s mother, lived together at Greenwood Park for “many years”, which Taylor said was “special”.

In an interview on her 106th birthday in 2021, Lambourn said she never thought about living to 106 because she was “too busy” enjoying life.

“It is in the luck of the gods. I just live every day as well as I can,” she said at the time. “You have only got one life to live, so you might as well make the best of it.”

Alan and Margaret Lambourn. Photo / Supplied

Shania Callender is a journalism student at the Auckland University of Technology.